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Ex Librls
C. K. OGDEN
THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
OF
HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE.
BY
ALFRED HENRY HUTU.
" I am dead ;
Thou livcst ; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied."
IN TWO VOLUME.S.
VOL. II.
SECOND EDITION.
ILontion :
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
CR(V,VN nUILDINGS, i88, FLEET STREET.
l8S6.
\^All rights It served.^
LONDON :
(JILBERT AND Rl VINGTOX, PRINTERS,
ST. John's squark.
C/ i^ LIBRARY
^ \ 0> UNIVERPITY OF rATJFORNIA'
B I Ho SANTA BARBARA
\W6
LIST or CONTENTS.
TAG E
Chapter V. {contintted) i
Letter to a Gentleman — Illness — Stay at Pjlack-
heath — Kindness to Children — Utilitarianism and
Morals — Death of his Nephew — Stay at Carshalton
— Further Illness.
Chaptkr VI 38
Women and Knowledge — What to Read — Fine
Arts and Civilization— Immortality— Suicide — Stay
at St. Leonards — Dinner, iSth April— Volume II.
approaching Conclusion — Epochs in Literature —
Further Illness — Second Stay at Carshalton— Con-
versation with . Mrs. Huth — Tour in Wales — In
Scotland — Successes of the History —'^xxn)- at Sutton
— Preparation for Egypt.
Chaptk.r VII 1,3
Responsibility — Kindness— Alexandria — Cairo —
The Nile— Education— Thebes— Talk with Mr.
Longmorc — Nubia— Love of Antiquities— Prepara-
tions for the Desert — Stay in Cairo — Suez — Major
Macdonald— Sinai — Petra — Jerusalem— Dead Sea
iv Contents.
PAGE
Mill on Buckle — Nabulus — Nazareth — The Fatal
Illness — Visit from Mr. Gray — Tiberias — Akka —
Tyre — Sidon — The Last Letter — Beyrout — Damas-
cus — Illness increasing — Death.
Appendix 255
Bibliography 295
Index 313
THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
jC
OF
HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE.
CHAPTER V .—Continued.
ON the nth he returned to London, and "had
a long visit from Parker, who does not like
to publish my reply to Coleridge in Fraser ; but
recommends me to put it forward in a pamphlet,
which I shall probably do." And he writes as
follows to Mrs. Grey : —
"59, Oxford Terrace, \\th June, 1S59.
" Dear Mrs. Grey, — * * * Mr. Parker has
just left me. It is probable that I shall publish a
pamphlet about Coleridge and Pooley. This, not
being quite settled, please not to mention ; but I
should be glad to hear from you what points in my
accusation of the judge you think Mr. Coleridge
has invalidated. When we meet on Thursday will
VOL. II, B
2 The Life and Writings of
be time enough : but I should be glad if you will
write down the heads. All I want is your judgment
as to whether or not Mr. Coleridge has set aside
any of my charges."
" 59, Oxford Terrace, 24//^ June, 1859.
" My dear Sir/' — As I have not heard from
you, I suppose you have no remark to make ; if so,
the pamphlet had better be published immediately.
Please not to forget to send copies to * * * and
twenty copies to me.
" A young friend of mine is collecting autographs.
Would you be kind enough to preserve for me
some of your best authors .-' "
" 59, Oxford Terrace, 24/A June, 1859.
"My dear Sir,^' — I almost fear whether you
will receive this before you return on Monday, but
I chance it, as I will not go to press until I have
your opinion about the duration of the imprison-
ment.
"All the accounts I can now lay my hands on
say twenty-one months. This is given, not only in
the Reasoner, and in Mr. Holyoake's pamphlet, but
21 Mr. Parker.
Henry Thomas Buckle. 3
also in the Spectator of 8th August, 1857, and in
[the] Times of 3rd August. To the argument of
my pamphlet it matters (as you truly say) nothing ;
but to the point of it, it matters a good deal.
Besides, in my essay I said twenty-one months (as
Mr. Mill in his Liberty, I believe, also says) ; and
though I would willingly recant an error, I do not
wish even in a matter of detail to represent myself
as being wrong when I am probably right. The
Saturday Review stands alone in calling it eighteen
months. The Solicitors Journal (I think) said
twenty-one ; but of this I am not sure. I must
ascertain this. Surely there are means in this free
country of learning beyond the possibility of a
doubt what any sentence was .-* and I would rather
stay in town and keep the pamphlet back than be
baffled.
" There seems a good deal of force in what you
say of Pooley having ' traduced ' the author of
Christianity. Therefore I have omitted the 'hurt
no one and traduced no one,' and inserted ' neither
hurt nor traduced any living being.' This is a real
improvement, and I am much obliged to you for
having been the means of putting it into my head.
" Could the clerk of the records be written to i*
" Sincerely yours, &c,
B 2
4 The Life and lVriti7igs of
" T\\*i. first petition to Sir G. Grey, which I have
seen, but cannot at the moment refer to, also
mentions twenty-one months. This I am sure of."
" 59, Oxford Terrace, 25//i Jtme^ 1859.
" My dear Sir,"^ — Since writing to you yester-
day I saw Mr. Mayo, and he undertook to get
official evidence of the sentence. I have this
moment received his letter. On the other side I give
an extract of his own words, in order that you may
judge if they set the matter at rest. The clerk
may have been speaking from the memory of what
he saw in the newspapers ; and you will observe
that it is not said that he referred to any document
stating what the sentence was. Can we not have
an attested copy of the sentence on paying a fee }
I need hardly say that to be beyond the possibihty
of doubt I would gladly pay such fee. I shall not
send the proof to the printers till I hear from you.
On Monday I leave home at two o'clock, and shall
be out all the afternoon till about seven.
" Yours very truly, &c.
" Mr. Mayo writes : —
" ' I was directed to the Clerk of the Western
" Mr. Parker.
Henry Thomas Ducklc. ' $
Assize, Mr. Sidney Gurney House ; and his clerk
let me glance over the parchment indictment in his
office containing four counts ; and on the last of
the indictment it was written that the prisoner was
found guilty of the ist, 3rd, and 4th counts ; and
the clerk informed me that he knew positively that
the sentence was for twenty-one months' imprison-
ment in the gaol — six months on the first count ;
six months on the third count ; and nine months
on the fourth count. The clerk said a copy could
be had of the indictment if necessary, but only
allowed me to glance over it without noting any-
thing on paper.'
" Thus far Mr. Mayo. A copy of the indictment
I should not much care about ; but a copy or
memorandum of the sentence would be satisfactory
— though I cannot possibly believe that a/l the
accounts are wrong and the Saturday Reviezv alone
right. Besides, I don't think Mr. Coleridge would
have let slip the opportunity of taunting me with
inaccuracy."
" 59, Oxford Terrace, 27M Jtine, 1859.
" My dear Sir,'^ — I will write immediately to
Mr. Mayo, and try if I cannot get official and
23 Mr. Parker.
6 ' The Life and Writings of
attested evidence ; for as there is, to my mind,
scarcely any doubt of twenty-one months being
the term, I do not see why I should needlessly
charge myself with inaccuracy.
" In my letter I have purposely used less strong
language than in my essay ; partly because there
was no need to repeat what I had already said, and
partly because I wished to consider you as the
publisher. But surely I have a right to comment
as I like upon the public conduct of a public magis-
trate ? and this is all I have done. The most
severe expressions I have used are ' cruelty,' and
' evil deed ; ' and if the sentence on Pooley was
not an act of cruelty, what does the word mean }
The infliction of needlessly severe punishment is
cruelty, even if the motive is good. For instance :
an honest and well-intentiojted schoolmaster may be
cruel, and would be punished however pure his
motives might be. This at least is my way of
looking at it ; and if I am right, then indeed
a fortiori an act of cruelty by a judge is an evil
deed.
" In regard to your responsibility, I will write
you any sort of letter you desire, with the under-
standing that you shall show it to whoever you
like. You published (and I am glad you did so)
Ilcnry Thomas Buckle. 7
Mr. Coleridge's letter, charging me with slander
and malignity — can he expect that you, my sole
publisher, should object to print my rejoinder, when
it does not even appear in your mac^azine, but as a
pamphlet with my name ?
" Yours very truly, &c,
" If you are ' identified ' with my attack, then
every publisher makes himself responsible for a
signed letter which he publishes as a pamphlet.
With such a doctrine there would be an end to all
free discussion."
" 59, Oxford Terrace, 28M Jime^ 1859.
" My DEAR Sir,'-' — Entirely to please" you I have
struck out the word ' evil,' leaving the passage * the
principal actor of that deed.' By this post I send
the proof to Messrs. Saville and Edwards. If to-
morrow is fine, I shall be all day in the country ;
therefore you will perhaps have the kindness to
see that my corrections are properly made by the
printers. They arc only ' evil/ omitted at p. i
line xiii. ; ' are,' instead of * were,' at p. 6 line xxix. ;
and ' neither hurt nor traduced any living being,
instead of ' hurt no one and traduced no one,' at
p. 7 line xxiii.
2^ Mr. Tarker.
S The Life and Wii tings of
" This has been a long and troublesome business,
but I am more vexed by the annoyance it has
caused you, than by its effect on me."
The Letter to a Gentleman respecting Pooleys
Case was published a few days later, and contains
much of the matter of his private letters. " His
defence," says Buckle, " fully justifies my attack ;
and, if he is willing to agree to the proposal, I
wish for nothing better than that both attack and
defence should be reprinted side by side, and circu-
lated together as widely as possible, so that they
may be read wherever the English people are to be
found, or wherever the English tongue is known."
It need hardly be said that the attack alone, of the
two, has been reprinted.
Nevertheless, this pamphlet, despite its power,
and scathing sarcasm, had no very great circula-
tion, owing to the form in which it was printed ;
and he writes as follows : —
"Boulogne, 2i^h October^ 1859.
" My dear Capel, — * * * I am particularly
glad to hear that you have done something about
the ' Letter.' The little publicity given to it is,
I think, unfair towards me, and still more unfaii
Henry Thomas Ihicklc. 9
towards the cause which I advocate. Of course I
can do nothing ; and the great dislike which I have
to circulate my own writings, prevents me from
sending copies to people. If you chance to be in
town, I wish you would ask Parker how matters
are going on."
He told his friend, Mr. Henry Huth, that he
intended at some future time to get his Essays
reprinted, and meant then to ask Mr. Coleridge,
through his publisher, whether he wished to have
his answer to the accusation inserted in the reprint.
" I have not done anything in my life on which
I look back with greater satisfaction than this,"
he added with earnest emphasis. " Since I wrote
that article I have had a great many requests from
people who have suffered wrong to write about
their cases ; but if I were to go a,bout like Don
Quixote redressing evils, I should miss my effect
where I think it most desirable that I should
speak."
That this controversy should have occurred just
after his mother's death was exceedingly lucky for
Buckle. It gave him an interest : for, excepting as
regards his intellectual powers, he was but the
wreck of his former self.
lo The Life and Writings of
" Brighton, 19M May, 1859.
"Mv DEAR Mrs. Grey, — I did not answer your
kind note immediately, because I thought that by
waiting a few days I might be able to say some-
thing positively about my movements. But they
are still uncertain, and I cannot decide upon them.
Here I am, working hard — and it is my only
pleasure : just as the capacity of work and thought
is the only part of me that has not deteriorated.
Strange ! that the intellect alone should be spared.
But so it is. The feeling of real happiness I never
expect again to know : but I am perfectly calm.
Only to tell you the honest truth at once, I dread
to see you because of the associations of the past.
While I am here everything reminds me of things
that zvcre — but then I see literally no one, except
my aunt, who never expects me to talk, and I sit
all the evening with her as contemplative as if I
were alone. And I cannot break up these habits :
I begin even to doubt if I shall travel. I do not
yield to this without a struggle. One day I did
dine with Mr. , but I suffered too much from
the reaction to try society again, Sometimes my
old plan of going to the United States comes
before me — but I cannot tell. * * *
I I envy Thomas Buckle. 1 1
" I have spent many pleasant days with you all :
but if we were now to meet it would only distress
your warm heart. Leave me alone — or write if
you will, about your studies and your books. Into
those I can enter, but all else is gone. I am quite
well, and able to take my full amount of exercise."
And his aunt writes concerning this visit, show-
ing how his spirits improved : —
" Brighton, iith Jtme, 1859.
" It is now two weeks to-day since Henry left
mc : he was certainly better for the change ; and
had many friends which made it pleasant for him,
as he dined out several times, and often spent the
evening at the C 's, who live in Kemp Town."
He often had great fits of depression, and excessive
weakness also. I very much fear for his brain :
and I am sure he does so himself One morning
he was out of bed dressing half an hour before he
knew where he was — he thought he was in Oxford
Terrace. I heard from him last week : he said he
intended leaving London in a short time, but did
not tell me where he was going. * * * Henry
'* I Ic dined out six times in seven weeks, and spent the evening
out once.
I 2 The Life and Writings of
sometimes said he would go to Boulogne ; but he
had no settled plan. When he left me he talked of
doing different things every day."
" But I cannot tell," is the burden of his letters.
He could decide on nothing for certain. He was
changing his mind every day. But he could still
help his friends : —
" 59, Oxford Terrace, 26/A Jjine, 1859.
"Dear Miss Shirreff, — I send the third, fourth,
and fifth volumes of Wagenaar. You always take
so much care of books that it seems ungracious to
ask you to take especial care of these : but the fact
is, that the entire work, which I possess, of more
than sixty volumes, is very rare, even in Holland ;
and here unprocurable. Therefore I would only
beg of you not to travel about with them, as lug-
gage is sometimes lost, and it would be impossible
to complete the set if anything were to happen to
one of the volumes.
" I am quite well. I shall leave town either on
Monday or Tuesday, and probably go direct to
Cromer — but I don't know."
Henry Tiiomas Buckle. i 3
The following note, written to Mr. Theodore
Parker, also gives some account of his state : —
" Blackheath, 5M July, 1859.
" My dear Sir, — I have been in town for a
few days on business, and found your card on my
table at Oxford Terrace. I can not tell you how
much I regret that we should not have met. The
great respect which I feel for you, as the most
advanced leader of opinion in one of the two
first nations of the world, would of itself suffice to
make me eager for the pleasure of your personal
acquaintance.
" And when I add to this the memory of your
obliging and friendly letters to me, you will easily
believe me when I say how much I have been dis-
appointed at being unable to call upon you, and
make arrangements to see you.
" But the severest of all calamities has befallen
me, and has so prostrated my nervous system that
I am now enjoined the strictest quiet.
" Your conversation would arouse in me so many
associations, and excite me to so many inquiries
respecting your noble country, that I feel myself,
alas ! unequal to meeting you ; and, as you might
14 The Life and Writings of
possibly hear from some of my friends in London,
I have been compelled to give up all society. In
such cases the more I am interested the more I am
hurt. I do not know how long you are likely to
stay in England ; but it would give me great
pleasure to hear from you, and to be assured that
you understand the cause of my apparent in-
attention. I shall probably remain here until the
end of August."-*'
At the time he wrote this letter he was staying
in lodgings at Blackheath, whither he had gone
after leaving Brighton, and seen his Letter to a
Gentleman through the press. His History, the
second volume of which he had been working at,
at Brighton, was so far advanced that he began to
copy part of it ; though he enters in his diary that
he expects fifteen months more will be passed
before it is finished and ready for the press.
During his stay at Blackheath Mr. Capel visited
him, and wrote as follows to a friend : —
" I went to Elsham Road," he writes July 25th
" on Saturday week, and began a letter to you
there to let you know what our friend is after ; but
he broke me off in the middle, and I did not take
it up again.
^•^ Weiss, vol. i. pp. 469, 470.
Hc7iry Thomas Buckle. 1 5
" He is going on composing uninterruptedly
every morning, and has two chapters on Scotland
ready for the press. He is getting on fast with the
fourth, which will, I hope, soon be complete. He
will then be ready to address himself to the last —
on the deductive method of the Scotch Schools,
and its influence and general operation. This, as
he says, will prove the toughest part of the
volume.
" There are two or three curious incidents about
his domicile which you will like to hear. He is
very much satisfied with his quarters, as you will
have seen from his note. He advertised stating
his wants, and of course got numerous replies.
He was disposed to go to Bexley Heath, lower
down in Kent, but was determined by the shady
avenues of the fine Spanish chestnuts in Greenwich
Park. Other things have conspired to justify his
choice, for his landlady, who has been a widow
four or five years, turned out a somewhat remark-
able person. She reads Italian, quotes Tasso and
Dante, &c., is well up in French, and knows its
literature, and when necessary can produce Virgil
and Cicero. There's for you ! She did not know
anything particularly of her inmate till I went down,
and found her rather astonished, and holding
i6 The Life a?id Writings of
her breath at him. She told me she had known
me well in the Church in London, and she was
evidently glad to have her excited curiosity as to
her guest set at rest. So I let the light fully in
upon her, and called up her anxiety to make
atonement for having ventured to disagree with
him in something he had said to her as to the
mental influence of women — the old topic you see.
On going the next day (for they could not take me
in there) I told her I had three copies of the His-
tory of Civilization, and would lend her one ; but
she had lost no time, and had been to the book-
seller and ordered a copy.
"Such then is his hostess mentally, and in man-
ners she is very much of the gentlewoman. So you
will not wonder that in the evening, after dinner, he
sometimes drops the solitaire, and invites her to
converse, as he takes his ease on the lawn in the
shade behind the house. Nor is this, when so dis-
posed, his only resource, for she has two or three
children living with her, whose parents are in India ;
and he has made great friends with these — espe-
cially with one, a little girl about five, a quick,
intelligent thing ; and, as you may suppose, she has
not been slow to show how sure she is of his pre-
dilections ; for she climbs up on him, gets on his
Henry Tlioiiias Jhuklc. i 7
back, and pats him on the face, and glories in her
liberties, which pleases him the more. So, at
present, time goes on. * * *
" I saw my im^decin down here, and he ordered
me to the sea forthwith, or I do not think Mr.
Buckle would have consented to my leaving. As
it was, he told me if he were not so busy, and
going on so satisfactorily with his work, he would
go to Cromer with me for as long as I could
stop."
Buckle was, indeed, remarkably fond of children,
and possessed the power of making them fond of
him. Once, when stopping with Mr. Capel, hesaw
a little girl during one of his walks who took his
fancy, " she looked so gentle." He talked to the
little thing, and played with her, and the next da}-,
and several days following, he always found her at
the same spot. At last he told her he should not
see her again, because he was going away. The
child looked very blank at this, but, suddenly
brightening up, asked him to take her with him,
she would " like to be his little girl." Once, too,
calling on some friends, they noticed how remark-
ably heated he looked. He had been playing
cricket with some nephews. " I cannot refuse
anything to children," he said, in excuse for tiring
VOL. II. C
1 8 The Life and Writings of
himself so in his weak state, and on so hot a
day.
His little niece was one of his favourite toys.
" Let the mother do for the boy, I will take care
of the little girl," he said.
From Greenwich he went to Margate, and, though
his work steadily went on, his weakness gained
upon him. August 17th he "accidentally fell
down stairs and fainted away." Yet he did not
himself seem to see that he was out-taxing his
strencrth.
'i>'
" Margate, ^th Septeinber, 1859.
" I expect to be in town for a very few days late
in this month, on my way to Boulogne. I am
working very hard at vol. ii., and am quite well.
I have absolutely nothing to write about, though I
began my paper high up, thinking to send you a
long letter. * * * What you say about the little
B 's does not seem so alarming as you think,
unless Dr. Mayo has said more than you have told
me. He is naturally nervous, and this always
makes men lean to the unfavourable side ; besides,
his extreme conscientiousness would make him
unwiUing to run the risk of seeming to give a
flattering judgment. Children change so rapidly.
Henry Thomas B^ickle. 19
and are so capable of rallying, that what is true of
them now may not be true in a month's time. I
hope their father and mother will not be needlessly
anxious. As soon as I know where Mrs. B is,
I will write. Everything is so uncertain (or, to
speak more properly, we are so densely ignorant)
that unless there is actual organic disease, I do not
think we ought ever to be apprehensive about
those we love. Otherwise we may pass our lives
in constant fear."
" Margate, i, Park Place, 13M August, 1859.
"My dear Sir,"— * * =fc Having been work-
ing very hard at vol. ii., I have flagged a little, and
been advised to try sea-bathing here. I am very
anxious, if possible, to go to press early next year.
There are still some Spanish books which Williams
and Norgate promised to get for me, though I
hardly know now what they are. I hope that you
have remained pretty well. To stay in London
and to work must be very trying in such weather
as we have had.
" I see advertised in the Times an article in the
Law Review'^'^ on Pooley's case ; but as I know that
" Mr. Parker.
" "Sir John Taylor Coleridge and Mr. Buckle." In the Law
Magazine and Law Review for August, 1859, pp. 263—284.
C 2
20 The Life and Writings of
my facts cannot be disputed, I have not thought it
worth while to buy the Review, and shall wait till
I can read it in town for nothing — which is about
the value of most criticisms,"
" 59, Oxford Terrace, iZth Septeynber, 1859.
" My dear Sir,''— Thanks for your note. All
that I want at present is to have the other volume
of Campomanes' Ediicacion Popidar, of which you
procured some time ago four vols, for me (I think
from Nutt's). This work, as I now have it, is
incomplete and wants the most important part, viz.
the appendix of documents. Also, I should be
glad to have the Spanish work on the Church. I
forget the title, but you sent me last spring a copy,
which I returned to you, and which belonged to
Mr. Doyle, or at least was procured by him,
" I am in town for a few days before going to
Brighton. I am, and have been, very busy with
vol. ii.
" Yours very sincerely, &c
" I have had a hint of a review preparing in the
Tablet. Do you know aught of it .-' And have
you heard of a review in the Rambler ? Whenever
you have occasion to write, please to give me an
39 Mr. Parker.
Henry Thomas Buckle. 21
idea of how Miss Shirrefif's book is selling ; but
don't trouble yourself to write on purpose — I know
you have a good deal to do."
[" Margate, 7/// Scpfeffiber, 1859.
" My dear Capel, — Nearly all the early
editions of Bayle are castrated. You had better
not buy one before 1730. Look if it has the tivo
lives of David, one of which is mostly wanting —
4 vols, folio, calf, 3 5 J-, to 2/. 2s. Chalmers at 61. '^s.
ought to be a good copy, in sound calf or half
morocco ; and even then it would not be particularly
cheap. * * *
" I am working very hard at vol. ii., and am
tolerably well.
" Parker sent me the Eraser. Dr. Mayo writes,
as he could hardly fail to do, in a very liberal and
friendly spirit. I quite agree with what he says ;
but it does not touch my theory."^"
"The most convenient edition of Bayle is one
published this century, in about 16 volumes Si'o. ;
but I am afraid it is a dear book."
Dr. Mayo's paper chiefly contested the proof of
'» Some Remarks on Mr. Buckle's History of Civilization.
Frasers Magazine, September, 1859, p. 293, et seq.
"yy
The Life and Writings of
the little effect of morals on the progress of man-
kind. Concerning this, Buckle had written soon
after the publication of his first volume to
Mrs. Bowyear : —
" January, 1858.
" You ask me how I reply to the charge of not
taking into consideration the effects produced by
the passions of men on the course of history, My
answer is, that we have no reason to believe that
human passions are materially better or worse than
formerly — nor that they are smaller or greater.
If, therefore, the amount atid nature of the passions
are unchanged, they cannot be the cause either of
progress or of decay ; because an unchangeable
cause can only generate an unchangeable effect.
On the other hand, it is true that the manifestation,
and, as it were, the shape oi the passions, is different
in different periods ; but such difference, not being
innate, must be due to external causes. Those
causes propel and direct the passions of men, and
these last are (in so far as they are changeable)
the products of civilization and not the producers
of it. In my book I always examine the causes
of events as high up as I can find them, because
I consider the object of science is to reach the
largest and most remote generalizations. But my
Henry Thomas Buckle. 23
critics prefer considering the immediate and most
proximate causes ; and in tJicir way of looking at
the subject they naturally accuse me of neglecting
the study of the emotions, moral principles, and
the like. According to my view, the passions, &c.,
are both causes and effects, and I seek to rise to
their cause ; while, if I were a practical writer, I
should confine myself to their effects. But I
despair of writing anything satisfactory within
the limits of a letter on this subject."
"Boulogne, 15/A October^ 1859.
" It is impossible in a letter to answer fully your
questions on the utilitarian theory of morals. But
I do not think that you separate rigidly two very
different matters, viz., what morals do rest upon,
and what they ought to rest upon. All very honest
people who have not any reach of mind regulate
the greater part of their moral conduct without
attending to consequences ; but it does not follow
that they ought to do so. The doctrine of conse-
quences is only adopted by persons of a certain
amount of thought and culture, or else by knaves,
who very likely have no thought or culture at all,
but who find the doctrine convenient. Thus it is
24 The Life and Writmgs of
that the science of political economy perpetually
leads even disinterested and generous men to
conclusions which delight interested and selfish
men. The evil of promiscuous charity, for instance,
and the detriment caused by foundling hospitals
and similar institutions, is quite a modern discovery,
and is directly antagonistic to that spontaneous
impulse of our nature which urges us to give, and
always to relieve immediate distress. If there ever
was a moral instinct, this is one ; and we see it
enforced with great pathos in the New Testament,
which was written at a period when the evil of the
instinct (as shown by a scientific investigation of
the theory of consequences) was unknown. I have
no doubt that when our knowledge is more ad-
vanced, an immense number of other impulses will
be in the same way proved to be erroneous ; but
even when the proof is supplied, there are only
two classes who will act upon it — those who are
capable of understanding the argument, and those
who, without comprehending it, are pleased with
the doctrine it inculcates. What is vulgarly called
the moral faculty is always spontaneous — or at
least, always appears to be so. But science {i. e.
truth) is invariably a limitation of spontaneousness.
Every scientific discovery is contrary to common
Jlenry Thomas Buckle, 25
sense, and the history of the reception of that
discovery is the history of the struggle with the
common sense and with the unaided instincts of
our nature. Seeing this, it is surely absurd to set
up these unaided instincts as supreme ; to worship
them as idols ; to regret the doctrine of conse-
quences, and to say, ' I will do this because I feel
it to be right, and I will listen to nothing which
tempts me from what I know to be my duty ;' to
say this is well enough for a child, or for an adult
who has the intellect of a child ; but on the part of
a cultivated person it is nothing better than slavery
of the understanding, and a servile fear of the
spirit of analysis, to which we owe our most valu-
able acquisitions.
" I wish I could publish an essay on this ! How
I pine for more time and more strength ! Since I
have been here I have read what Mill says in his
essays, and, like everything he writes, it is admirable
— but I think that he has done better things. He
does not make enough of the historical argument
of unspontaneous science encroaching on spontaneous
morals, and the improvement of moral conduct
consequent on such encroachments. I saw this
when I wrote my fourth chapter on the impossi-
bility of moral motives causing social improvement.
26 The Life and Writifigs of
But here I am getting into another field, and it is
hopeless."
This last letter was vyritten from Boulogne,
where he went as usual to spend Christmas, taking
three boxes of books with him, and intending, as
he says, " to work steadily, as I have been doing
for some time, in the hope of finishing vol. ii.
before next spring. I am quite strong now, but
miserably restless, and dissatisfied with everything
except the creations of the intellect." But about a
month later he writes : " I begin this letter not in
the best frame of mind or body, as I am still
suffering from the effects of fever, which has con-
fined me to bed for three days. * * * Even
before I was laid up I felt as if my energy was
gone. I cannot tell you how I dread the idea of
going to London, to that dull and dreary house
which was once so full of light and love ! On the
other hand, my ambition seems to grow more
insatiate than ever ; and it is perhaps well that it
should, as that is my sheet anchor."
When he did go back he never entered his
drawing-room. Once only, during the whole time
from his mother's death to when he left the house
for his last journey, did he summon up courage to
I I envy Thomas Buckle. 27
do so, and that was to get a book from a dwarf
book-case which stood there.
Before he left Boulogne, another cruel bereave-
ment was destined to befall him, in the death of his
favourite nephew, a boy of uncommon parts, and
devoted to his uncle. He was his constant com-
panion out walking. "When you talk to me,
uncle, it seems like a dream," he once said ; and
Buckle had so high an opinion of him that he had
left him his whole library in his will. The boy
died at Christmas, after three weeks' illness. He
that was to have succeeded, went before ; and
another blow fell on Buckle's already tottering
health.
A few days after his return from Boulogne,
Buckle writes as follows : —
"59, Oxford Terrace, i^th January, i860.
" My dear Mrs. Woodhead, — I have only been
a week in England, and have had so much pressing
business that I have not been able to answer your
letter before. I was, however, really glad to receive
it, and to hear that you are all pretty well. During
the last four or five weeks I have been very unwell,
but am now rci^aining streni;th, and am busy with
28 The Life and Writings of
my next volume, which I much desire to publish
this season, though I am so hindered by the extreme
difficulty of procuring Spanish books that I feel
no confidence about it. You say nothing about
your husband's work. Since he has everything in
his favour — leisure, health, and strength — and still
no result. However, give my love to him. As
they say in the East, * It is written,' and I suppose
things must be so.^^
" I am told that Macaulay has left his papers in
such confusion that nothing more will be published
of his History. How much he is mourned ! Now
that he is dead people are beginning to understand
the real greatness of the man whom when living
every little critic was ready to revile.
" Tell your husband to read Darwin On Species,
and to master it. He will find it full of thought,
and of original matter."
He worked on as usual his six hours a day, and
was as gay as ever in society : —
" 59, Oxford Terrace, loth February, i860.
" Dear Thackeray, — I send Beugnot's work
on Paganism, in the hope that you, not being a
'' Major Woodhead published his Life of Queen Christina in 1864.
Henry Thomas Buckle. 29
Pagan, will neither pawn it nor sell it, but will
return it to mc like a Christian when you have
read it.
"Joking apart, the book is well worth reading,
and the best I know of on the subject.
"With much regard, &c.
" It must have been under the influence of De
Priaulx's wine that I told you yesterday that
Salverte was the author."
And he writes to Mrs. Mitchell that he is making
strenuous efforts to go to press before the summer.
But he reckoned without his constitution, which
again was beginning to break : —
" TuNBRiDGE Wells,
'■'■{Between 2.7th March and \th Ap7il), i860.
" My dear Annie, — * * * l have been suf-
fering from weakness and depression of spirits,
with all sorts of odd sensations, and strange
bodies flitting before my eyes. Mr. Morgan says,
what, in fact, is obvious, that the brain has been
seriously overworked, and that nothing will restore
it but complete rest and the most bracing air I
can get.
" I shall probably stay here till Tuesday morning.
30 The Life and Writings of
and then go for a day or two to Ramsgate, thence
to Oxford Terrace, and then, if the weather is fine
enough, I shall travel, but where, I do not yet
know. * * *"
The way he set about taking " complete rest " is
intimated by the following letters, addressed to
his friend Henry Huth : —
"59, Oxford Terrace, 22nd Augtist, i860.
" My dear Sir, — I have returned to London for
a few days, and not finding Nunez's Life of
Charles IIL (which you thought would have been
sent to you before now), I write to ask if you have
heard anything about it, as I wish to go to press
early in November, and the book will be of no
use to me unless I have it before the middle of
October."
" 59, Oxford Terrace, 25/// August, i860.
" My dear Sir, — I feel really obliged by the
trouble you are taking for me. All that I know
about Nunez is, that Rio (in his Historia del
Reinado de Carlos III., Madrid, 1856) constantly
refers to his book as an authority. At vol. i.
Henry TJiouias Buckle. 31
p. 201, note, Rio gives the title in full as 'Fenian
Nunez, Compendio historico de la vida del rey
Carlos III."
" If it should come to you not later than the
lOth October it would be in time."
"59, Oxford Terrace, \Wi December, i860.
" * * * I have Navarrete, Opusculos, which you
lent to me, and which I shall return as soon as my
chapter on Spain is through the press. Have you
any Spanish books on the reign of Charles IV.
or on Spanish politics from the reign of Ferdinand
VII. to the present time .? I hope to go to press
in less than a fortnight."
Mr. Capel at length prevailed on him to come
and stay a week with him at Carshalton. He soon
made friends with the three boys who were under-
going tuition there, and who were, at first, dis-
posed to look upon him with considerable awe.
He romped with them, procured them holidays,
and threatened Mr. Capel that he would make
them rebel if he did not shorten their hours of
work. " He is a very nice fellow," one of the boys
wrote home, " and never talks philosoph}- to us."
32 The Life and Writings of
And they followed him about like a pack of
dogs.
"Mr. Buckle when he was here was a jolly
chap," was the description of him in a letter home,
and the boys wrote to tell him how they had
enjoyed his visit. He answered from Brighton : —
" \%th September, i860.
"My dear Boys, — I received your letter this
morning with great pleasure, as it showed that you
had not forgotten me ; and it is always agreeable
not to be forgotten. The next time I stay at
Carshalton all three of you will, I hope, be at Mr.
Capel's, and we shall be as merry as ever. And I
expect that before then you will have learned to-
go up the chimney in the way I told you of. I
have not tried it myself, but I hear that it is very
pleasant, and it must be funny to see a fellow
covered with black gradually rising out of the
chimney at the top of the house. Mind you
don't do too many lessons ; it's very bad to work
too hard, and particularly unwholesome for boys,
especially when they are growing.
" The weather here is very wet and disagreeable,
and so windy that I had my hat blown off yester-
Henry TJiomas Buckle. H
day, and very nearly lost it in the sea. But I was
too quick, and, after a sharp race, I succeeded in
capturing it. Such things never happened to mc
at Carshalton. And now I must say good-bye,
because I have my lessons to do, and as / am not
growing I have no excuse for being idle, as you
have."
From Brighton, he also wrote to Mrs. Grey, as
follows : —
"Brighton, ^th October^ i860.
"My dear Mrs. Grey,— Without stopping to
make inquiries, I have no hesitation in answering
your question at once, by saying that, unless a
German master has a good connexion to start with,
he has no reasonable chance of succeeding here.
The great number of schools here have attracted
so many masters that the competition is immense.
I know two German masters here, one of them
an able and very learned man. Dr. Rugc, the trans-
lator of my work, and I have in this way heard
something of the prospects and usances of teachers.
Until about the middle of October, there are com-
paratively few persons here whom I know ; but I
will bear your request in mind, and make inquiries
vol.. II. D
34 ^/^^ Lif^ ^^^^ Wyiiings of
from some of the residents when they return to
Brighton.
" Should I see cause to change my opinion, I
will write again— otherwise you will suppose that
I have heard nothing fresh.
" I wish you had told me how Miss Shirreff is,
and if she enjoyed her trip abroad. Pray make
my kindest remembrances to her and to Mr. Grey.
" We shall, I hope, often meet in London, as
you are going back so soon ; and I also shall be in
town late in November, in order to go to press. I
feel tolerably strong, and am able to do a good
deal of work. The next volume is actually finished,
save the mechanical part of copying the notes for
the press. I am now meditating my third volume,
and trying to see my way to the arrangement of
the different topics which the civilization of Ame-
rica and of Germany naturally suggest.
" I have waited till the end of my letter to tell
you how glad I was to hear from you ; because I
wished also to say that your reproach seems hardly
fair. If it is a long time since you have heard
from me, it is a long time since I have heard from
you. The great and constant pressure of my own
work makes me feel letter-writing extremely
onerous ; and I have accustomed myself to expect
Ileiiry Tliomas Biicklc. 35
that my friends will make allowance for this —
most of them do make allowance."
" 59, Oxford Terrace, 13/A December, i860.
" My dear Miss Shirreff, — I have this mo-
ment received your letter and am indeed grieved
to hear such an account of G . Poor little
fellow ! I had fancied, from what you told me, that
he was really getting better ; but such continued
prostration is alarming. Most earnestly do I trust
that his life may be spared I cannot tell you how
much I feel for your sister and her husband. Give
my kindest love to them, and pray, dear Miss
Shirreff, let me have ONLY ONE LINE from you
when you get to Halstead, saying how they all are,
and what you think of G 's appearance. That
such things should be hanging over us, threatening
at every turn of life, is too much. They only are
wise who can harden their hearts.
" I am working very hard, and apparently with-
out inconvenience ; but every part except my head
is very ill. If it would not be asking too much of
Mrs. T , I should like to have the whole of
La Fuente, as well as Martignac Siir la Revolution.
You know that I am very particular about books,
and I will take the greatest care of them."
D 2
36 TJie Life and Writi7igs of
" Brighton, November^ i860.
" My dear Mrs. Bowyear, — * * * I am still
at Brighton, too weak and ill to travel. When I
shall get to town I really cannot tell. * * * I see
too surely how changed I am in every way, and
how impossible it will be for me ever to complete
schemes to which I once thought myself fully
equal. My next volume is far from being ready
for the press ; and when it is ready it will be very
inferior to what either you or I expected."
"Brighton, 29//? November, i860.
" My dear Capel, — I have been very unwell
for some days, and now, to add to everything else,
I have got the mumps. I shall consequently not
be in London till the latter part of next week."
Before he left Brighton he had an interview
with Mr. Holyoake, who had sent him a pamphlet
a year ago, and now wanted him to bring out a
cheap edition of his History, leaving out the notes.
He also arranged with Mr. Parker to sell him the
edition of 3000 copies of his second volume for
600/. ; and immediately on his return to London,
Henry Thomas Buckle. 37
on December 6th, " weak and depressed," set to
working about eight hours a day, and began send-
ing MS. to the printers on January 4th.
At Easter he made a short stay at St. Leonards,
with Mr. and Mrs. Henry Huth : but since an eye-
witness is the best witness, we will leave Mrs. Huth
to give an account of his visit in the next chapter.
38 The Life and Writings of
CHAPTER VI.
IT was in 1857 that we became acquainted with
Henry Thomas Buckle. Long before, we
had heard him talked of by an enthusiastic friend,
who told us that Buckle was then writing the His-
tory of Civilization. Our friend, Mr. Capel, would
not borrow a book from us to read without first
asking " my friend Buckle " whether it was worth
reading, as lie knew all books. If I praised a
favourite author, I was told that my admiration
was misplaced, as " my friend Buckle " saw imper-
fections in him. " But would not Mr. Huth like
to call on my friend Buckle t " Mr. Huth decidedly
objected, saying that if that gentleman's library
contained 22,000 volumes, and he had read them
all, as Mr. Capel assured us, it would be an im-
pertinence for a man, who had not anything very
extraordinary to recommend him, to intrude upon
him. I was very glad of this answer, for I hated
I ferny Thomas B tickle. 39
that " friend Buckle," whose name was constantly
in Mr. Capel's mouth, and bored me intensely; who
was always put forward to contradict me; who was
said to know everything, and who had seemingly
done nothing. We were therefore considerably
surprised when Mr, Capel came one day and said,
" I have told my friend Buckle that you wish very
much to make his acquaintance, and he will be
glad to see you if you like to call upon him." My
husband looked very black, but he had nothing for
it but to go to 59, Oxford Terrace, where he was
told Mr. Buckle was not at home, and he left his
card. Later, when our dear friend made his last
stay with us, I told him how we had been forced into
our acquaintance with him ; and he explained that
he had only agreed to see us, as he thought it would
be of advantage to Mr. Capel, who was going to
have a son of ours at his school. At that time he
had never expected our acquaintance to develope
into a friendship.
One morning Mr. Capel came in, looking very
much excited, and asked whether I was going to re-
main at home that afternoon, for, if so, he would call
with Mr. Buckle. When he came, the conversation
turned chiefly on education, especially on the bad
methods in which languages are generally taught.
40 TJic Life and Writings of
ViW Capcl, I think to give Mr. Buckle a good
opinion of me, told him that I was studying minera-
logy. Upon this Mr. Buckle immediately began to
banter me about it, and advised me rather to read
the Introductions to the works of Rome de Lisle
and of Haiiy, without going further, — " For/' he
said, "as you neither intend to give lectures ordeal
in minerals, it is a waste of time for you to learn to
distinguish felspar from quartz ; it is not for women
to go deeply into the technicalities of science, but
only de Ics cflcurcr!' I told him, another time,
that I had only been looking into the subject, as
one of my boys had begun collecting minerals, and
I wished if possible to foster any nascent taste for
science ; and he then quite approved of what I had
done, and told me that a friend of his, who had two
charming little boys, always asked his advice about
their education, though the eldest was then only
five years old. All the advice he gave her was to
cultivate herself. The atmosphere of a cultured
mother was more beneficial than anything else to
children.
At Mr. Buckle's first visit he also spoke of the
immoderate admiration most people have of the
past ; and that was why, the more remote the times,
the bigger, better, and longer-lived the people were
Henry Thomas Buckle. 41
supposed to have been — a subject then new to me,
as his first volume had not yet been published.
Mr. Buckle had on a thick, fluffy overcoat, which
I never saw again till we accompanied him to
Southampton, where he was to embark for Egypt
with our sons. He sat leaning back on a sofa,
which pushed his coat collar up over his ears,
and gave him the appearance of a short, fat
man.
The next time I saw Mr. Buckle I asked his advice
about historical reading. He remarked on that occa-
sion, that most people read too much and think too
little ; and said that it was necessary to take copious
notes while reading, and look them through very
often. Of Prescott he observed, that that part of his
works which treats of the Netherlands was inferior
to the Spanish part, because he had never taken
the trouble to learn Dutch, and therefore had been
unable to study those documents and works which
were as yet untranslated. He advised me to read
Lingard, not only because he was a good writer,
but also because I lived in an atmosphere of Pro-
testant opinion, and therefore ought to be careful
to get acquainted with the opposite views. On
French history he recommended Lavallee, since,
he said, in his four volumes were contained all the
42 The Life atid Writings of
most valuable facts related in the sixteen of
Sismondi.
I saw from that very first visit that Mr. Buckle's
intellect was something extraordinary. But he
seemed to me a cold, unfeeling man, with no sym-
pathy for individuals, and caring only for what was
beneficial for mankind as a mass. When, soon
after his first volume was published, I read his bio-
graphical sketch of Edmund Burke, I began to
take a different view, but still thought that his
tenderness could be roused only by individuals of
extraordinary intellectual powers. By degrees I
got more and more puzzled about him. I kept a
note-book, from which I was prepared categorically
to question him whenever I knew he was coming ;
and the kindness, patience, care, and sympathy
with which he answered greatly astonished me. It
was a rule with him, never to pay more than one
visit a day among his friends — on acquaintances he
only left cards — and his visits, when they happened
to be to me, generally lasted about twenty minutes.
But if, on any subject on which we happened to be
talking, I was not yet quite clear, he went on com-
bating my arguments point by point, and never
moved from his chair until he had made it perfectly
plain to me. But no sooner had I grasped it than
Henry Thomas Buckle. 43
he took up his hat, said goodbye, and hurriedly
left.
The conversations which I had in this way with
him, made me see that there were two Buckles —
one cold and unfeeling as Fate ; who invariably took
the highest and widest view ; to whom the good of
the individual was as nothing compared to the
good of the mass. This man was heard in the
History of Civilisation, and at dinner-tables where
many people were present. The other Buckle was
tender, and capable of feeling every vibration of a
little child's heart ; self-sacrificing to a degree which
he would have blamed in another ; and habitually
concentrating his great intellect on the conse-
quences of individual actions to the actor. On
these occasions he always took the proximate view,
and recommended it in the practice of life ; for, to
foresee the remote consequences of our actions he
considered impossible.
In reading the first volume of his work I was
struck by the almost entire absence of any mention
of the fine arts, and asked him whether he thought
they had but little influence on civilization ? "Yes,"
he did think so. They had civilized individuals
indeed ; but never nations. Their time has not
come yet. And, going on to talk of the decline of
44 The Life and Writings of
the fine arts in modern times, he pointed out that
when they stood highest, men had only just begun
to investigate the laws of nature, and all the
highest intellects were absorbed in art. Now they
are absorbed in the discovery of natural laws, and
the arts will not again rise until these are practi-
cally all discovered. Then the greatest men will
again have leisure to turn their attention to art.
Leonardo da Vinci was the greatest intellect of his
age. Had he been born now, he would not be
an artist but a natural philosopher. One of the
greatest poets of the present time was Faraday —
surely a man need not write poems to prove him-
self a poet 1 Had he not shown his great powers
of imagination in his discoveries .-' The last pro-
blems which would remain for us to solve would
be those of mind and of matter. And did he think
they would ever be solved } We had no right to
put a limit to the human intellect. Of Cuvier, who
considers " L'influence du corps sur I'ame," a " pro-
bleme insoluble hors de la portee de I'esprit hu-
main," he said : " If Cuvier said this, he did not see
beyond his own horizon."
He had shown in his History how absurd it was
to offer up prayers in church for rain ; how then, I
asked him, is it with prayer for recovery from ill-
Ilejiry Tliomas Biic/clc. 45
ness ? Pie owned his contempt for general "prayers
of the congregation " for recovery, and also that he
himself did not believe prayer would at all alter the
course of disease ; " but," he said, " if you have a
dear friend who is ill, it is your duty to do every-
thing in your power to promote recovery ; and, if
you believe that prayer is efficacious, it is right for
you to pray."
I then went on to say that philosophers talk of
the general increase of happiness, but what comfort
have they for the individual ? " The first answer I
am going to give you to this," he replied, " is that
it is the business of philosophers to discover and
propagate truth, and not to give comfort. How-
ever, they tell us that there is no future punish-
ment, and that is a great comfort. Society could
not exist if it were not to punish crime ; but we
have no right to blame the criminal who has
become what he is through a series of events over
which he has had no real control. Knowing this,
how can we believe that the Great Causer of all
these events can at last punish His creature?"
" How do we know that there is a future state .-' " I
inquired. " Know it, we do not," he answered,
" for it is transcendental ; but our instincts lead us
to believe." " And what do you think on the ques-
46 The Life and IViilings of
tion of personality in a future state ? " I asked.
"What do I think on that subject ?" he said, seem-
ing rather interested in the question. " I believe
that what we have done here will not be lost to us,
but also that the mind of the philosopher and that
of the idiot will be equal after death. The difference
we now see in them is owing to the material through
which the intellect filters. If mind is immortal it
cannot really be diseased. Philosophers do not like
this idea."
" Why is it a sin to commit suicide .'' " " Because
in ninety-nine cases in a hundred it is an act
either of impatience or of cowardice. As long
as a single being exists whom our death would
pain, we have no right to kill ourselves. Did any
one exist whose death would hurt nobody, and
who was afflicted with a very painful and incurable
disease, I really see no immorality in his quietly
taking a dose of laudanum. The reasons I have
given justifies society in branding suicide as a
crime, just as a parent is justified in severely
punishing a lie. For a lie too, is in most cases
told from a bad motive, though it need not
necessarily be wrong. If I were to say 'two and
three make six,' what harm have I done .'' "
The maxim commonly attributed to the Jesuits,
Henry Thomas Bncklc. 47
Mr. Buckle said, had not originated with them, nor
did they alone act upon it. " In so far as physical
pain is concerned, surgeons, for example, constantly
act upon it ; for what is taking off a limb, but
doing evil that good may come } We practise it
too in the moral world every time we deprive a
child of a pleasure as a punishment, or because it
would be dangerous to it," He talked of the
beneficial influence of pleasure, not only in his
book, but also in his conversations. " It is a serious
responsibility," he said to me once, when I asked
his advice, " to curtail another's pleasure." And on
being told that a very delicate old lady had gone to
a very cold part of the country to pass her Christ-
mas with her daughter, he remarked that the gratifi-
cation of her will would probably benefit her health.
Even while he was working eight hours a day at
his second volume, he could find time to give
advice to a friend. He made an appointment to
call on me to answer more fully some questions
which I had asked him in Mrs. Grey's drawing-
room, and kept the appointment with his usual
punctuality. He stayed nearly an hour, and after-
wards wrote to Mr. Manwaring to put m)- name
among the subscribers for Mr. Herbert Spencer's
" First Principles," which he had given me a great
48 The Lije a7id Writings of
desire to read. But he warned me never to take it
in hand when I was tired — a piece of advice he had
formerly given to me in regard to Shakespeare.
"The imagination," he said, "is a delicate thing,
and it must be carefully dealt with." On my
remarking that in Germany there is an idea pre-
valent that Shakespeare is more valued there than
in his own country, he replied, " the Germans have
some right to say so, for they were the first to
write on Shakespeare. Before Coleridge, no
Englishman had written anything worth reading
on Shakespeare. When I asked him whether I
should read the German critics, he told me to read
Tieck and Schlegel if I had time, but it is more
important to know Shakespeare than to know
what has been written on him. From ten years
of age to eighty, no better book could be taken in
hand.
The printers were going to stop work for about
a week at Easter, and Mr. Buckle having heard
that we were going to make a stay at St. Leonards,
asked me a great many questions about the hotels
there, and said that he would join us in the hotel
to which we had decided on going, if the printers
did not play him false. I wondered that he pre-
ferred St. Leonards to Brighton, which place he
Henry T/umms Ihickl". 49
had once told mc, always set him up again in three
days, however fatigued he was, and that the
strongest east wind was never too much for him.
" This is an exceptional case," he said. " I want a
change, but I am very anxious to run as little risk
as possible of catching cold, as this would retard
the publication of my volume. St. Leonards being
a milder climate, there is not the same risk."
About a week afterwards Mr. Capel wrote, asking
us to secure a room for Mr. Buckle in our hotel.
We were not, however, at an hotel, as we had been
tempted by an exceedingly well-situated house,
and all our endeavours to get him a room for
Easter week proved fruitless. To show how sorry
we were at our ill-success, I mentioned that we had
one spare room, which we would offer him with
pleasure, only that it was on the third floor, and
with a back view. It was therefore with some
surprise, more mixed, perhaps, with fear than plea-
sure, that we received the following note by return
of post : —
" 59, Oxford Terrace, ^^rd March, 1861.
" My dear Mrs. Huth, — I have just received
your letter, and it is so extremely kind that I can-
not hesitate to say yes to it. Unless the printers
VOL. II. E
50 The Life and IVrifijij^s of
pla\' mc false I could be with you by an early train
on Thursday next (the day before Good Friday),
or possibly even on Wednesday evening ; but I
think it would be safer to say Thursday. If this
suits you, please to let me have a line to say so,
and also tell me what time the trains leave, and
which are the fast ones. Must I gto from London
Bridge ? Or can I go from Pimlico station ?
" I shall be obliged to return home on Tuesday
or Wednesday after Good Friday, when the printers
will again begin to work,
"You will, I know, be careful to have the bed
thoroughly aired. This I should not mention, ex-
cept that lodging-houses at this time of the year
have often been long unoccupied, and I am subject
to pains in the limbs, which are half rheumatic and
half neuralgic.
" The bed-room being high up is no objection to
me. On the contrary, I prefer it as being more
airy. You must not put yourself at all out of the
, way for me, or make any difference."
We tried to make him as independent as possible,
with a separate sitting-room, and the provision of
ink and a blotting-book.
But during his whole stay he never once entered
Henry Thomas Buckle. 5 1
the room. When going out for a walk or drive we
never asked whether he would come with us.
Sometimes he invited himself for a drive, but his
walks he always took alone. Once, indeed, he met
my husband on the beach, and they walked on
together, talking on Political Economy. Mr.
Buckle got interested in the questions he was
asked, and went on walking and talking for an
hour; but when he came home he was quite ill for
the rest of the day. My husband did not then
know how slight a frame bore that powerful intel-
lect ; he himself had forgotten it in the interest of
talking. He retired to his bedroom to sleep if
possible for a couple of hours. When the two
hours were nearly over my husband went softly
upstairs to see if he was moving ; but before he
reached his door he heard our landlady's children
singing loudly and jumping violently, as it seemed
just over Mr. Buckle's room. He stopped the
noise, and then went to inquire if he had slept.
Mr. Buckle said, " No, the noise had prevented it."
Why did he not ring the bell } " Oh, no, poor
little things ! It was their time for singing and
jumping, not their sleeping time."
The fulness of his mind was something wonder-
ful. Every evening the talk turned on a different
E 2
52 The Life and Writings of
subject. One evening, in a sentimental mood, he
would talk of poetry. Richard 11. he considered
the most poetical of Shakespeare's compositions;
and then, as he stood leaning against the mantel-
piece, he gave us that speech, " No matter where,
of comfort no man speak ! " I doubt whether any-
one has heard it on the stage rendered in anything
approaching the perfection that we had in that
little lodging-house parlour. His eyes started
forth, his looks were ghastly, but he neither gesti-
culated nor moved about, as some actors do. He
did not even raise his voice above the ordinary
pitch, but tuned it in a manner that made us feel
almost as miserable for the time as the unhappy
king. And then going on from one piece to
another he quoted those lines of Corneille : —
" Et comme notre esprit, jusqu'au dernier soupir,
Toujours vers quelque objet pousse quelque desir,
II se ramene en soi, n'ayant plus ou se prendre ;
Et monte sur le faite, il aspire a descendre.
J'ai souhaite I'empire, et j'y suis parvenu ;
Mais en le souhaitant je ne I'ai pas connu.
Dans sa possession j'ai trouve pour tous charmes,
D'effroyable soucis, d"eternelles allarmes,
Miile ennemis secrets, la mort a tous propos,
Point de plaisir sans trouble, et jamais de repos." '
He then, went on to Milton : —
• Cinna, Act II., scene i.
Henry Thomas Buckle. 53
" Thus with the year
Seasons return ; but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine ;
But cloud instead, and evcr-during dark
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and, for the book of knowledge fair,
Presented with a universal blank
Of nature's works, to me expunged and rased,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou, celestial light,
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate ; there plant eyes ; all mist from thence
Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight.''
As he finished my husband asked him some ques-
tions, but our poor friend had no voice to answer
it ; for several minutes he was almost in a fainting
state, and, had he not been on the sofa, would have
fallen. It was plain that he was too painfully
reminded by these passages of his own bereaved
state.
But the next evening he would be full of fun and
anecdote. His reading of French Memoirs had
furnished him with a number of amusing stories,
and among others he told us many that Lord
Lyndhurst had got from Talleyrand. They were
mostly clever answers of the witty Frenchman.
54 The Life and Writings of
Another time we asked him a few questions about
the children, and it lead to special medical advice
for every one of our little flock : the diet requisite
for each different age and constitution, the amount
of exercise, of sleep, &c., &c., was all considered.
Later I got much of the advice confirmed by Dr.
Mayo, and none at variance with it.
That Easter, on account of the recent death of
the Duchess of Kent, everybody was in mourning
with the exception of Mr. Buckle. " People do
question me about it sometimes," he said, " but I
always answer that I never do wear mourning for
anybody but those who have been my personal
friends.'^ " What with going against the stream
in this way," said one of us, "and the opinions
expressed in your book, you will never be Lord
Buckle." " No," he answered, " nor do I wish
it.'^ Yet he greatly admired the character of the
Duchess of Kent, and the way in which she had
educated the Princess Victoria ; respecting which
he told us how the princess, having spent all her
pocket-money at a bazaar at Tunbridge Wells,
saw something that she wanted very much to have,
but could not buy. The stall-keeper at once
requested her to take it, and pay when she pleased.
" Did not you hear the princess say that she had
Henry Thomas Budde. 55
spent her allowance ? " interposed her governess,
who had to act according to the Duchess's instruc-
tions. The stall-keeper, quite taken aback, asked
to be allowed to put the article aside until the
beginning of next month. This was granted, and
the princess came on the first day, paid for her
parcel, and took it home. " That is educating,"
added Mr. Buckle, with a little severe look at me,
when he had finished the sLory. "The conse-
quence is," he went on, " that the Queen has not
once had to come before Parliament to have her
debts paid, as former sovereigns were wont to do."
He did not consider that I was strict enough. For
instance, my youngest child was rather shy with
strangers, and I ought to get her out of it - send
her with the nurse into the kitchen — have h^.i \.'^
the drawing-room always, and so on. At the same
time he preferred a want of severity to anything
approaching cruelty to children. The tone in
which he told us how Wesley's mother prided her-
self on having forced her children while yet very
young to bear pain without any outward sign,
showed that he by no means admired her. Then,
going on to talk of education generally, he saia
that girls' schools were nearly all of them bad, for
they were mostly kept by unmarried women, who
50 The Life and Writings of
have no knowledge of the world, and who are
afraid of everything above mediocrity. " When
was sixteen I gave her, as a birthday present,
Moliere's works. Soon after I .heard that her
schoolmistress had immediately taken the book
away. I then made inquiries as to what authors
were granted access to that respectable establish-
ment." And here Mr. Buckle mentioned a number
of second and third-rate poets, among which I only
remember the name of Gray, while the forbidden
works included all the greatest of French and
English authors. " What harm can these great
works of genius do .-' " he continued. " Any girl
who has been brought up in an atmosphere of
refinement will shrink, if anything, from any coarse
passage she may come across. The youngest
schoolboys are allowed to read them as much as
they like ; and which grow up the most refined
men, these schoolboys, or the uneducated poorer
classes ?
" How is it," I once asked Mr. Buckle, "that you,
who are so fond of refinement, should be so severe
on those who spend much thought or money on
dress ; more, severe even than on those who
waste the same amount on the decoration of their
houses.''" " Because the first has by far the worst
Hefiry Thomas Ihickle. 57
consequences," he answered. " Would not a greedy
woman shock you more than a vain woman ? " I
asked. " If I had a daughter," he repHed, "I
would rather she had the former fault of the two."
Anything like a show of diamonds he considered
vulgar ; as it seemed to be a sort of flaunting of
riches, and 1 therefore confessed in fear and trem-
bling to my weakness for lace. To my great relief
he allowed that that ornament was blameless.
"The beauty of lace is insidious; for ten persons who
would notice diamonds, perhaps one would notice
ace.
Talking of the so-called " Working Classes,"
Mr. Buckle thought that they would always exist,
but would be better paid than they now are. At
present fortunes are still unequally divided. It is
not right that any man should have two thousand
pounds a year and his housemaid only twenty.
Such things, however, can never be altered but by
the gradual rise of the standard of wages. It
would avail nothing were a few well-meaning per-
sons to give their servants higher wages." These
remarks led to my telling him how much the
extravagance of my coachman and his family
vexed me, and that I was not at all sure but that it
was my duty to interfere as far as I could. " Would
58 The Life and Writings of
your coachman like your advice?" he asked. " No,
he would not." " Then don't give it. I always
give advice freely when I am asked, but not other-
wise, excepting to those whom I love." I told him
that my Viennese friends, finding me ignorant of
many modern works of German literature, recom-
mended me to read the Augsbiirger Zeitnng.
Should I follow this advice or not ? The answer
was, that I could not know too much, and that I
should therefore do well to follow their advice,
if I had plenty of time. Since, however, this
was not the case, it was necessary that I should
choose carefully what was most important for
me to learn; and amongst these the facts re-
lated in the Augsbiirger Zeitnng could hardly be
classed.
We accompanied him to the station when he
was leaving us, and saw him take a second-class
ticket, which, he told us, he often did. " I always
talk," he said, " and often find very intelligent
people in those carriages ; the first-class travellers
are so dull ; directly you broach a subject they are
frightened." Later in the year, when he came to
us from a tour in Wales, he told us that he had
picked up a great deal of information in this way
from commercial travellers, who generally have a
Henry Thomas Buckle. 59
thorough knowledge of the country through which
they are in the habit of travelling.
When we returned to town, and I sent him a
few things which he had been unable to get into
his portmanteau, the messenger came back with
some proof-sheets and the following note : —
"59, Oxford Terrace, 2,^d April, 1861.
"My dear Mrs. Hutu,— I think it a great
shame that your husband should have so much the
start of you as to be able to begin my next volume
a whole chapter before you ;' and as I hate cheat-
ing I remedy the fraud by enclosing to you the
proof-sheets of that chapter, merely begging that
you will return them, if possible, within ten days,
or at all events a fortnight at the very latest. I
have not yet written the Table of Contents, and to
do so I shall need the sheets.
" I say nothing about the pleasure which my
visit to you has given me. You have already
phrased it : ' Les femmes devinent tout.'
" Will you say to your husband, with my very
kindest regards, that if he wants any further infor-
mation about his proposed course of reading, he
- Ml. II. IluLh looked through the proofs of Chap. I. on Spain.
6o The Life and WHtings of
must not scruple to write to me fully, either now
or at any future time. However busy I may be, I
am never too busy to attend to what interests
those for whom I have a real regard."
On the 1 8th April he dined with Mr. and
Mrs. Huth, " We were a party of ten," writes
the latter, " among whom were Miss Thackeray,
Mr. Capel, and Mr. Roupell. The last-named
gentleman, who had never met Mr. Buckle before,
was much struck, not by his brilliancy, which he
had expected, but by the delightful humour which
IS not often found in conjunction with such severity
of thought. Poor Mr. Capel, as the representa-
tive of the clergy among us, had to serve as butt
to Mr. Buckle's clever sarcasms against them.
Mr. Capel defended them valiantly, by enume-
rating all the good they had done in preserving
manuscripts, softening manners, spreading civiliza-
tion, &c., &c. ; but at the end of the discussion
Mr. Buckle said, quite seriously, that he considered
the evil inflicted by the clergy on mankind out-
weighed any good they had done. After dinner
Miss Thackeray made him talk on poetry, when,
among other things, he said that Goethe's Faust
would live as long as the German language was
Henry Fhoinas Buckle. 6i
understood ; indeed, he afterwards, while travelling
in the East, remarked that, next to Hamlet, Faust
was the greatest composition that had ever been
written. And what do you think of Schiller's
genius ? All his reply was, ' Schiller did not gird
his loins.' Oliver Twist was the best of Dickens's
works. Adam Bede will live. Silas Marner is a
perfect jewel of a novel. One of the company
asked what there was in Racine that his country-
men assigned to him so high a rank 1 ' I have
been told,' he answered, ' that the refinement of his
style is so subtle that no one not bred up in the
language can appreciate it.' ' No one, he thought,
who was thoroughly at home in his own lan-
guage could be intimately acquainted with any
other. The gesticulation which the French so
constantly make use of is due to the poverty of
their language, and not to their wit.' I think he
added ' that it was due to the same cause that
they had never had but one real poet, Bcranger,'
English he placed above all other languages ; and
it was plainly not mere sentiment which led him to
this conclusion, but study and thought. Once, at
our dinner-table, while describing its force, he said,
'We have little words in our language which tell
like the stroke of a hammer.'
62 Life and Writings of
" Mr. Capcl and he stayed to the last, thoui^h he
complained of fatigue. We told him to fancy
himself in the lodging-house at St. Leonard's, and
lie down on the sofa. He then talked of Newton,
how mental and physical strength were combined
in his constitution ; and complained of his own
feebleness, saying, ' I am never a week without
feeling that I have a body.' ' If I were a strong
man, I would do something.' Only a few weeks
later the second volume was in our hands, and we
heard that its author was very ill, and in danger of
brain fever."
On April 23rd he writes from Oxford Terrace :
" My seclusion has been all owing to work, which
has severely tasked my strength and engrossed all
my time. But now it is well nigh over, and unless
the printers play me false, my volume will be out
by the middle of next week. When it comes out I
hope that the Scotch clergy will love me. I have
toiled hard to deserve their affection."
"59, Oxford Terrace, 30/// A_pn7, 1861.
" My dear Miss Shirreff, — * * * i saw
Dr. Williams the other day, and his prescription is,
I think, doing me good. But I seem to see all
Henry TJiomas Ihukic. 63
events with a distempered and carping eye. I
asked him about G , of whose case he spoke
on the whole favourably, looking on time as the
great curcr. Tell this to your sister, with my
kind love, and genuine thanks for her letter.
Glad as I always am to see her husband, the
distance is too far, and he not strong enough
to make me wish him to call, unless he should
have occasion to be in the neighbourhood. I do
not need a visit from him to be assured of his
friendship."
"59, Oxford Terrace, \st May, 1861.
"Dear Mrs. Mitchell,— * * * You ask
me to give you a list of the few really important
writers the world has produced, and whose works,
from the amount of new truth they contain, mark
an epoch in the history of the human mind. Such
a list will necessarily be extremely short ; and I
shall make it shorter by striking out of it the great
physical and mathematical works — because the
truths in them are so cumulative that the latest
works are usually the best. With this reservation,
I will now mention what I think the most impor-
tant and original writers. Homer, Plato, Aristotle
64 The Life and ]]^riti7igs of
(the Romans produced nothing original except
their jurisprudence — their philosophy they stole
from the Greeks, and spoiled it in the stealing),
Dante, Shakespeare, Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes,
Grotius, Locke, Berkeley, Kant, Brown On Causes
and Effects, Hegel, Comte's Philosophie Positive^
Mill's Logic, Smith's Wealth of Nations, Malthus
On Population, Ricardo's Political Economy. And
for the study of human nature, the three greatest
modern works of fiction are Don Quixote, The Pil-
grinis Progress, and Goethe's Faust.
" Possibly I have omitted something ; but there,
I believe, are the whole of the masterpieces. Vir-
gil and Milton I omit ; because, greatly as I
admire them (especially Milton), I cannot place
them in the same rank as Homer, Dante, and
Shakespeare. If this list needs further illustra-
tions, pray do not hesitate to ask for it." '
3 Plato: "This consummate thinker." — P. 15, vol. i. Hisl.
Civiliz.
Aristotle : "Probably the greatest of all ancient thinkers."
P. 543, note 244, vol. i. " Between Aristotle and Bichat I can find
no middle man. — P. 812, note 137, vol. i. Hunter, as a physiolo-
gist, "was equalled, or perhaps excelled, by Aristotle; but as a
pathologist he stands alone." — P. 566, vol. ii. Hist. Civiliz.
" Little inferior to Plato in depth, and much his superior in com-
prehensiveness." — Essay on Mill.
Dante : "It is impossible to discuss so large a question in a
note ; but, to my apprehension, no poet, except Dante and Shake-
speare, ever had an imagination more soaring and more audacious
I I airy Tli07)ias Buckle. 65
"59, Oxford Terrace, 2nd May, 1861.
" Dear Mrs. Mitchell, — * * * Pray re-
member that I did not send you the list with a
view to )'our studies. Each person needs a sepa-
rate plan. My intention was to give you a uni-
than that possessed by Sir Isaac Newlon."— /*. 113, note 194,
vol. i. Hist. Civiliz.
Shakespeare: "The greatest of the sons ot men."—/'. 42,
vol. it. "The two mightiest intellects our country has produced are
Shakespeare and Newton."—/'. 504, vol. it. Hist. Civiliz. "A
perfect intellect, * * * that instance, I need hardly say, is
Shakespeare." "He thought as deeply as Plato or Kant. He
obser\'ed as closely as Dickens or Thackeray."
B.VCoN : Burke was, "Bacon alone excepted, the greatest thinker
who has ever devoted himself to English politics." — P. 413, vol. i.
" Bacon and Descartes, the two greatest writers on the philosophy
of method in the seventeenth century."—/'. 542, note 242, vol. i.
Hist. Civiliz. " To genius of the highest order he added eloquence,
wit, and industry." " While the speculations of Bacon were full of
wisdom, his acts were full of ioWy."— Essay on Mill.
Descartes : " Of whom the least that can be said is, that he
effected a revolution more decisive than has ever been brought about
by any other single mind." — P. 529, vol. i.
HOBBES : " The subtlest dialectician of his time ; a writer, too,
of singular clearness, and, among British metaphysicians, inferior
only to Berkeley. This profc^und thinker," cS:c. P. 356, vol. i.
Hist. Civiliz.
Berkeley : " The most subtle metaphysician who has ever
written in English."—/^. 659, vol. i. " One of the deepest and
most unanswerable of all speculators."— TtV. ii. p. 478, note 113,
Hist. Civiliz.
Ka.n'T : "That extraordinary thinker, who in some directions
has perhaps penetrated deeper than any philosopher either before or
since. * * * The depth of his mind considerably exceeded its
comprehensiveness. — Essay on Mill, note.
VOL. II. F
66 TJie Life and Writings of
versal, and, as it were, bird's eye view of the great
epochs of thought, for speculative curiosity rather
than for practical use."
On May 15th he received his second volume,
and the next day went to Margate, whence he
writes : —
CoMTE : "A living writer, -who has clone more than any other to
raise the standard of history." — P. 5, vol i. note i. "This eminenf
philosopher." — P. 173, vol. I. " The greatest [writer on the
philosophy of method] in our own time." — P. 542, note 2^2, vol. i.
Mill : See the Essay.
Adam Smith : " Published his Wealth of Nations, which,
looking at its ultimate results, is probably the most important book
that has ever been written."- — P. 194, vol. i. "Indeed Hume,
notwithstanding his vast powers, was inferior to Smith in compre-
hensiveness, as well as in industry." — P. 195, note 59, vol. i. " Well
may be it be said of Adam Smith, and eaid, too, without fear of
contradiction, that this solitaiy Scotchman has, by the publication
of one single work, contributed more towards the happiness of man
than has been effected by the united abilities of all the statesmen
and legislators of whom history has preserved an authentic ac-
count." — Vol. i. pp. 196, 197. " By far the greatest of all Scotch
thinkers." — P. 432, vol. ii. "Displaying that dialectical skill
which is natural to his countrymen, and of which he himself was
one of the most consummate masters the world has ever seen." —
P. 441, vol. it., and//. 443, 540, vol. ii. Hist. Civiliz.
Malthus : " The great work of Malthus." — Essay on Mill.
RiCARDO : "Since Ricardo, no original thinker has taken an
active part in political affairs." — Essay on Mill. "And Mill's book
is, on the whole, the best since Adam Smith, though for pure
political economy hardly equal to Ricardo's. But Mill has larger
social views than Ricardo, and is less difficult." — Letter to Jlliss
Shirreff, S^/i July, 1858.
Henry Thomas Buckle. 67
''17th May, 1 86 1.
" Dear Mrs. Grote, — I am so unwilling that
you should think that during the few weeks for
which you visit town I would intentionally abstain
from coming to sec you, that I write to tell you
the cause. The moment I had got my second
volume through the press, the excitement which
had kept me up being withdrawn, I suddenly col-
lapsed. The nervous prostration became so threat-
ening, that 1 was ordered to try what this very
bracing air would do for me. Already I am better,
but still miserably nervous, and tormented by the
thought of how little I can do, and how vast an
interval there is between my schemes and my
powers. This is the first day I have been well
enough to write, and the trembling of my hand
will, I fear, make this difficult to decipher.
In about a week, or ten days, I shall probably
be again in town for a verj' short time, as I am
ordered to move about from place to place as
much as possible. Directly the weather is settled
I shall go abroad."
Mr. Capel joined him at Ramsgate, and related
afterwards several little things which showed in
what a nervous state poor Buckle then was, and
V 2
68 The Life and Writings of
how little things, which formerly would only have
provoked a smile, now caused him real annoyance,
" Now they are coming with their vulgarities," he
irritably exclaimed after a miserably cooked dinner,
when finger-glasses and doylies were put on the
table. Once, too, when Mr, Capel just read a
couple of pages out of a newly-published work of
Mr. Mill's, and rather inconsiderately asked some
questions on it, his friend nearly fainted in the
attempt to answer him.
At Brighton, where Buckle went after a week's
stay at Ramsgate, his sleep was so restless and
agitated that one night he fell out of bed ; and
his voice was heard so loud, that the servants
knocked at the door, thinking that he was calling.
Brighton, however, set him up in some degree, for
he again went into society when he returned to
London, after a week's stay there. He called on
Mrs. Huth, looking as usual, and talking as usual ;
but it v.-as plain that he was incapable of work, or
he would not have gone about calling on his
friends in the middle of the day. Mrs. Huth
writes : " I told him how anxious we had all been
about him, and that the first we had heard of his
illness was from Mrs. Bowyear, who told me that
he had called on her, and was obliged to sit down
Ilcnry Thomas Buckle. 69
for twenty minutes before lie was rested enouc^h to
speak. Pic laughed, and said : " What ? I did not
talk for twenty minutes ? You must have thought
that a very bad symptom ! " When the carriage
came, I asked him whether we could put him down
anywhere ? He named some out of the way street,
saying that he had business there. Long after,
I accidentally learned that the business was one
of those errands of charity to which he devoted
so much of his time, and that he had not the
heart to interrupt them even after his health had
broken down.
From Brighton he wrote as follows : —
"Brighton, i-]th May, 1861.
" Dear Mrs. Mitchell, — I have been very ill,
and even now, though much better, my hand
shakes so much as to make it difficult to me to
write.
" Complete and sudden nervous exhaustion forced
me to leave town without seeing any of my
friends. But I am told that with returning
strength I may again go into society ; and as I
have determined to go to London on Thursday,
and as your invitation is for only one day earlier,
JO The Life and W id tings of
I cannot deny myself the pleasure you hold out to
me. Therefore I will dine with you at eight on
Wednesday, 29th."
" 59, Oxford Terrace, dth June, 1861.
" Dear Mrs. Grote, — Your letter is very kind,
and I should be truly sorry not to see you before
I again leave town, which I shall do in about ten
days. I have returned home for a short time, be-
cause I felt so depressed that I thought a little
society would do me good. But my head is so
weak, that I do not venture to see any one whose
conversation is likely to interest me on a day in
which I am dining out. At present I am engaged
V till Monday next inclusive ; but on and after Tues-
day I have nothing on my hands, as very few
people knov/ that I am in town. I would therefore
call upon you on Tuesday afternoon (the nth), or
I would lunch with you ; or, as you kindly speak
of a quiet dinner, I would dine with you on that
day, or on some other when you may chance to be
disengaged. If you are at home when this note
arrives, please to let me have one line by the
bearer ; for at present I hold myself entirely at
your disposal after Monday. But do not marvel
Henry TJiomas Buckle. 7 1
if you find me very dull ; I feel like a worn-out old
man.
"Thank you for thinking about mc for your
evening party ; but I have a dinner engagement
for Friday, and I must not risk a double excite-
ment."
" 59, Oxford Terrace, 16M June, 1861.
"My DEAR Capel, — I hope to be with you
on Wednesday next. I cannot fix the time, but
I do not tJiink I can get to you before lunch.
Don't ask any one to meet me while I am with
you.
"If my proposal suits you, let me have a line to
that efifect.
" I drink hardly anything but claret — pure and
sound, but not expensive — Julien, or some vin
ordinaire. It is advisable to know something of
the place one gets it from, otherwise it may be
unwholesome. I know that you will excuse my
mentioning this ; or rather, that you would wish
me to mention it. Mr. Mayo also wishes mc to
drink occasionally Gennan seltzer water.
" I shall hope to stay about a week with you.
Try and engage a really new-laid Qgg for me for
breakfast."
72 The Life and Writings of ■
Of course the boys were delighted to renew their
acquaintance with him when he again came down
to Carshalton ; but he seemed to them to be very-
weak. His gait was stooping, and his walk rather
shambling, though he was able to walk long dis-
tances. As he sat quiet, his overworked nerves
showed their state of weakness by his constant little
groans, as if he were going to speak and stopped
himself suddenly.
While he was staying there, Mrs. Huth came
down to Carshalton with a daughter, for the day,
to visit her sons. " I sat half the day," she writes,
" with him in the little front garden. He seemed
to be amused with the children, who were con-
stantly coming up to him, talking to him, or shout-
ing to him from a distance ; and I noticed the
acuteness of his ear. The voices of my children
at that time were so alike that I could not dis-
tinguish them myself; but he, though too short-
sighted to see their faces unless they were near
him, seemed perfectly able to recognize them by
their voices. He talked to me of my daughter's
education. ' Four hours and a half at lessons is
too much for her,^ he said; 'you could not do it
yourself, and you are stronger than she is.' Surely
I could read four hours and a half in the day if I
Henry Thomas Buckle. 'j'^^
had no other duties. ' No, you could not,' he
replied ; ' and that child ought not to work more
than two in the morning and one in the afternoon,
at present. That may make all the difference in
her constitution, whether she be healthy or sickly
during the rest of her life. And you must find
out what she takes an interest in, and then occupy
her with it. She might take up drawing, in ad-
dition to the three hours' work, since you say she
is fond of it ; and the dancing would also be an
extra, since it involves no mental work. The
tendency of education nowadays is to overwork
children, and hence the great proportion of weak-
brained adults. Does she learn Latin } My dear
Mrs. Huth ! what induced you to make her study
one of the most difficult of languages } Miss
Shirrcff, as you say, has pointed out its value, and
what she says is quite true, and advisable in the
.education of strong girls. But she will teach it
herself, if she wishes to know it, by the time she is
twenty ; and for the present the best thing you
can do is to make her forget what she has learned,
as fast as possible. Let her read books on travels :
they will teach her pleasantly, and without fatigue,
much that is valuable. If she does not care to
read these, let her read story-books. It is of the
74 The Life and Writings of
greatest importance to foster a habit of reading ;
the rest will come of itself You ought not to let
her overdo herself physically either ; and by no
means let your daughters walk as you walked at
their age. Much of your present weakness and
neuralgia is probably due to that. You say that
at that time you felt all the better and stronger
for it .'' I daresay you did. But all the while
you were living on your capital : your life was
consumed too fast. Statistics show that butchers
are very seldom on the sick-lists of their societies,
while bakers are constantly ill. But, nevertheless,
bakers are longer-lived than butchers. You were
quite right not to let your daughter practise those
Swedish exercises. Nothing of the kind ought to
be done without the advice of a really good medical
man. You may have the action of a feeble heart,
for instance, quickly strengthened by certain re-
peated exercises ; but the result may be heart
disease, owing to that organ having been over-
worked.
"'Tutors,' he said, 'generally teach too much
from books, and too little by word of mouth. I
teach these boys more, sometimes, in a quarter of
an hour than they would learn otherwise in a week.'
But are our present race of tutors capable of teach-
Henry Tlionias Buckle. 75
ing in that way ? He shook his head. Presently
the postman came, and brought him a letter. He
read it, put it in his pocket, and looking quietly
up at us, said, ' I have heard of the death of three
relatives to-day, and I do not care for any one of
them. It is conventional,' he went on, 'to look
sad when speaking of the death of a relative,
though during his lifetime one may never have
shown him the slightest attention. I think it
better to be truthful. The letter I have just re-
ceived told me of the death of a relative abroad,
whom I had already taken a dislike to when we
were children ; for she had a bird that she made a
great pet of, yet when it died she did not seem to
care one bit. Later in life, she used to beat her
children on the slightest of grounds.' The threat
' I'll lick you, if you don't,' from one of the bigger
boys to a smaller, which we overheard, caused
Mr. Buckle to tell mc that he had heard it once
before, and seen it followed up practically. * Why
did I allow it } Oh, a strong boy is not hurt by a
little rough treatment ; and supposing I had stopped
that one act, what good should I have done } '
" Once more we paid Mr. Buckle a short visit
at Carshalton. We had been at Leatherhead to
look at a place which we meant to take for the
76 The Life and Writings of
summer, and stopped at Mr. Capel's on our way
back. Everybody was out. Mr. Capel had gone
to town, the servant informed us, but she ' knew
where Mr. Buckle and the young gentlemen were.'
We waited ; and after a short time saw them
coming across the field, laughing, talking, and
running, as if they were all boys together. They
had been at a strawberry gathering, and one of
the boys, enlarging on the generosity of their host,
told us that they ' had been allowed to eat as
many as they liked.' ' You ought to say, you ate
as many as you could,' interrupted Mr. Buckle ;
and then turning to me, ' filled himself with
them till I saw a strawberry come out of each eye.'
Another boy, looking all dimples, gave me his
account of the treat. Mr. Buckle watched his face,
and then asked me in German whether the mother
of the boy had a pretty smile — men rarely had it.
I warned him not to think that the little fellow
did not know German ; but he said he had for-
gotten all he knew since he had been at school.
* That's good education,' Mr. Buckle said ironically^
' to make a child learn something, and allow it to
be forgotten.' I reminded him about my daugh-
ter's Latin, but he of course saw that I understood
the difference between the two cases.
Henry Thomas Buckle.
/ 1
" The weather was beautiful, and I made a
remark on the air, which was fresh, and fragrant
with the scent of the neighbouring lavender fields,
lie, too, thought the air very bracing, but said
that, all the same, he could not stay at Carshalton
much longer. I guessed the cause, and remarked
that Mr. Capcl was not a suitable companion in
his nervous state. ' No, poor Capel worries me ;
but I shall miss the boys. I wish some one would
make me the guardian of two or three boys.' Then
he discussed the possibility of adopting some ; and
said that he could not adopt children of the lower
classes, because they were so badly brought up ,
but that he should be quite satisfied with ordinary
gentlemen's sons of thirteen or fourteen years of
age. I told him that his friend Mrs. had
adopted the eldest child of some servants who had
married from her house. I thought she would find
it awkward in time, when the little girl had grown
up as a lady, while her father and mother, brothers
and sisters, had to seek their compaii}- in the ser-
vants' hall. He thought so too, and, indeed, held
that an adopted child ought to be entirely cut off
from all knowledge of its real parents and relations.
Wc then talked of his future plans ; he thought
Sweden, a country which he had never yet seen.
78 TJic Life and Writings of
would prove beneficial as an entire change, and
take him away from himself; but doubted that
the rudeness of the country and hardship of travel-
ling might not more than counterbalance any
advantage of this sort to a man in his weak and
delicate state of health. As to France, he said the
only part of it which is not too hot for a summer
residence is the extreme north, and there one
would be subjected to the same want of comfort
as in Sweden. ' Besides,' he added, ' I cannot
bear to see, what makes me miserable even to
think about, a noble people under the heel of that
great brigand :■* a people with such a literature !
No, my indignation increases year by year as
this reign goes on.' He considered France, afcer
England, the most civilized of all countries. ' But,'
I urged, * in Germany there is more knowledge. A
greater proportion of the German population are
able to read and write even than the English.'
' Reading and writing is not knowledge in itself,'
he replied; 'it is only a means to knowledge,'
' But you say in your first volume that you consider
the German philosophers the first in the civilized
world, and that Germany has produced a greater
number of thinkers than any other country.'^
•* Louis Napoleon. * Hist. Civiliz., vol. i. pp. 217, 218.
He7iry Thomas Jhicklc. 79
' Certainly,' he answered, ' but if you look at the
context you will see that I point out that their
literature is the growth of but a century, and has
had hardly any influence on the people.' 'You
say that French refinement is only on the surface,
because you never saw in France a Frenchman
behave with unselfish politeness ? An individual
experience goes for nothing in a matter of that
kind. Look in the window of any grocer's shop,
and mark the arrangement of the French preserved
fruits. The people who fill those boxes belong to
the lowest orders, and yet how much refinement
they show ! Look, too, at the dresses of their
women, and you cannot but admit that French-
women show far more simplicity and quiet taste in
their attire than the women of other countries.' He
gave me more cogent proofs, but I have forgotten
most of his talk on the subject, and only remember
the generalizations, which amused and surprised
me from their being drawn from facts which most
people would hardly have noticed.
" As he sat there quietly talking on all sorts of
subjects, no one would have thought that anything
ailed him. Whenever he changed his position,
however, I could see little twitches of pain in his
face. I asked him whether he could keep himself
So The Life and Writings of
from thinking. ' Not altogether,' he answered.
' Could I have known that I should have to pass
so long a time without my books, I should never
have believed I could have borne it so well.' He
remarked once to me, that pain or grief is not so
difficult to bear as it appears from a distance ; and
it certainly seemed true in his case, shut out as he
was from all mental activity, and with the w^ound
still smarting of his mother's death. His calm and
cheerfulness was but rarely interrupted. Once
Mr. Capel surprised him in a flood of tears. ' You
don't know how I miss my mother,' he said. Yet
he was always ready to joke. Talking of his health
he remarked, ' Upon the whole, when I look back
I find I have made no progress ;' and then added,
as if it were equally sad, ' and now I am so
hungry.' "
From Carshalton he went on a tour in Wales,
promising to write alternately to Mr. Capel and
Mrs. Bowyear, who were to let his other friends
know how he was.
"Tenby, iith July, 1861.
" My dear Capel, — It is a week to-day since I
left town ; I hope that I am better, but I cannot
say much in my own favour. Please to write to
Henry TJiovias Buckle. 8 1
me ' Post Office, Abcrystwith, Cardiganshire ;' and
as I probably shall not stay there more than two
days, do not delay writing. An article on my
History is to be out to-day in the Edinburgh
Review, but there is not much chance of my seeing
it here. If you can get hold of it, tell me if it
contains any points of importance.
" I shall have my letters forwarded every ten
days or fortnight : so that a line to Oxford Terrace
will at any time reach me, sooner or later.
"My love to the boys. Don't give them too
many lessons."
"Hull, sij^yw/y, 1861.
" Dear Mrs. Mitchell, — After wandering for
two or three weeks in Wales, I have crossed the
country to this place, desiring to see an entirely
opposite form of life. On arriving here a few hours
ago, I found your letter. I am in every respect
better, and my old social cravings are returning.
Again I begin to feci human. At all events,
human or not, I am quite unable to resist the
temptation you hold out to me. I shall hope to
be with you somewhere about the middle of
August ; but you will perhaps let me leave the time
open, as the rate at which I shall travel northwards
VOL. n. G
82 The Life and Writings of
will depend on the weather and my health, and, I
fear I must add, on the caprice natural to a solitary
and unthwarted man. I will write to you some
days beforehand, of course with the distinct under-
standing that, being myself so uncertain, I shall
take the chance of your house being filled. On no
account would I interfere with the arrangements
in regard to friends whom you may invite ; and if
there is not room for me, I would travel on^ and
come to you later. Pray let this be clearly under-
stood, as I have no right to leave my arrival so
uncertain."
" Filey, tth August, 1861.
" My dear Capel, — I am now really better. I am
stronger and much less depressed. Your letter, dated
27th July, I received two days ago ; the uncertainty
of my movements prevented me from getting it
before. I do not mind about the form in which
the Spanish translation ^ appears, but please to let
both the translator and Robson understand that
there is to be 7tot the sligJitest alteration in the text,
and that the title is simply to be ' Introduction to
the History of Spanish Civilization,' or ' of Civili-
* Translation of chap. i. of vol. ii.
Henry Thomas IhicJde. 83
zation in Spain.' j\Ir. Iluth will be c^ood cnoufrh
(I suppose) to revise the proofs.
" I shall be glad if, when you go to town next
Saturday, you would call at Parker's, and let me
know how things are getting on. * * *
" I have not yet seen the EdinbiirgJi — indeed I
never open a book, except Shakespeare, l^ut at
Whitby I shall perhaps have an opportunity of
seeing the reviews. Tell me in what article the
notice is in the QiiarterlyJ
*****
" If Robson should observe any alteration, he
should let you know before printing it. I do not
like to be responsible for anything which I have
not written."
"Whitby, 13//? August, 1861.
" My dear Mrs. Woodhead, — Your letter has
just reached me here, where I have stopped on my
way to Scotland. I have been travelling through
Wales, and the fine mountain air did me much
good. Since I saw )-ou, I have suffered a good deal
from nervous exhaustion. Now I am considerably
better ; but a very little exertion fatigues me, and
writing makes my hand tremble. Still I would
not delay sending you a line ; and I know too that
7 " On Scottish Character." Quarterly Rnicio {ox 1\\\y, iZdx.
f. 3
84 TJic Life and Writings of
you will be pleased to hear of the success of my
second volume, of which nearly 2300 copies are
already sold, besides the sale of an American re-
print and a German translation. The chapter on
Spain is now being translated into Spanish. I
write with difficulty, but I hope you will be able to
decipher this. Give my love to your husband. I
am pleased to learn that his industry is returning
to him."
" Carolside, 25//^ August, 1861.
" My dear Mrs. Grey, — I did not receive your
letter till two days ago. During the last few weeks
I have been constantly on the move, and my letters
are only sent to me about every ten days. For
the moment I am staying with the Mitchells — very
pleasant people whom I think you know — at all
events Miss Shirreff knows them.
" I am really better, but think it prudent to abstain
from all work. I wish you could have given me a
better account of yourself and of Mr. Grey. He,
no doubt, feels the absence of summer. Here, at
least, it is bitterly cold, and since I left London I
have found rain almost everywhere. I was de-
lighted with Wales — the southern and western part
of which I never saw before. But as your theory is
Henry T/ionias Biickk. 85
that I know nothing about scenery, I will say no
more on that head. Everywhere I go I soon feel
restless, and, alter the first novelty has passed,
want to go elsewhere. This, I believe, is caused
by the absence of that stimulus to which my brain
has been so many years accustomed. I seem to
cry out for work, and yet I am afraid of beginning
it too soon.
"You do not say if Miss Shirreff is doing any-
thing. My kindest regards to her. When quiet
with you she will perhaps be able to do some work ;
and if my advice can be of any use to her, there
is no need for me to say how gladly I would give
it.
" I have no plans for the future ; but if the
weather improves, I shall probably go further
north.
" I am very glad that }-ou sent me the paper
about the Essays and Reviews Defence Fund. I
had not heard of it, and shall certainly subscribe
to it, and bring it under the notice of others.
" This letter is very dull ; but how can a man
help being dull when he neither reads nor thinks .-'
I feel a constant void and craving. But such is
the penalty I have incurred, and I must pay it."
86 TJie Life and Writings of
" September, 1861.
"Dear Mrs. Bowyear, — * * * The second
edition of my _/frj-/ volume is exhausted, and a third
edition has been nearly three weeks in the press.
The second volume is selling rapidly — thanks in a
great measure to my enemies. If men are not
struck down by hostility, they always thrive by it.
The German translation has appeared, and a
Spanish translation of the chapters on Spain is
now passing through the press. A Russian transla-
tion was advertised as being in preparation, but it
has been prohibited at St. Petersburg ; and I have
received two different proposals for a French trans-
lation — one from Paris and one from Brussels. So
much for the egotism of an author."
" Sutton, 15/// September, 1861.
"My dear Aunt,— * * * My health has
improved greatly, indeed I may say, I am almost
well, having lost all my nervous symptoms. I
greatly enjoyed my trip in Wales and Scotland.
My new volume is selling famously in England
and America. The German translation of it has
appeared, and a Spanish translation is being
prepared. The Russian translation has been
Henry T/iotJias Btcc/cle. 87
prohibited, it not being thought right that so mis-
chievous a book should pollute the pure minds of
the Russians. You see that it is your misfortune
to have a bad and dangerous man for your nephew.
The second edition of my^/j7 volume is all sold,
and a third edition is being printed.* I think I
have now told you all the news. And so, earnestly
hoping that you will soon recover your strength,
" I am, &c. &c."
8 Mr. D. Mackenzie Wallace twice found the Russian translation
of Buckle's Histoiy in peasants' huts. "In the course of a few
years," he says, "no less than four independent translations — so, at
least, I am informed by a good authority — were published and sold.
Every one read, or, at least, professed to have read, the wonderful
book ; and many believed that its author was the great genius of the
present generation. During the first year of my residence in Russia,
I rarely had a serious conversation without hearing Buckle's name
mentioned ; and my friends almost always assumed that he had
succeeded in creating a genuine science of history on the inductive
method. In vain I pointed out that Buckle had merely thrown out
some hints in his introductory chapter [ ! ! ] as to how such a science
ought to be constructed, and that he himself had made no serious
attempt to use the method which he commended. My objections
had little or no effect ; the belief was too deep rooted to be so
easily eradicated. In books, periodicals, newspapers, and profes-
sional lectures, the name of Buckle was constantly cited— often vio-
lently dragged in without the slightest reason — and the- cheap trans-
lations of his work were sold in enormous quantities." — Pp. 167,
168, Rtissiii, vol. 1., London, 1877.
The following are the particulars of its sale in England : —
Vol. i. : By the end of 1S57, 675 copies were sold. On July the
loth, 1858, the publisher informs Buckle that 500 copies of the New
Edition had been sold, including icxa to Mudic.
88 TJic Life and Writings of
" Carolside, 27M August, 1861.
" My dear Mrs. Huth, — Owing to the uncer-
tainty of my movements, I did not receive your
letter till a few days ago, on my arrival here.
" I fully hope and expect to be able to pay you
a visit at Sutton — perhaps about the middle of
September. When I can fix a day I will write
again ; to ask if my time will suit you. Meanwhile
I should be glad to know if you have heard from
By i6th September, 1858, 714 copies of the New Edition were
sold.
By 8th November, 1858, 950 copies of Second Edition were sold.
By 15th December, 1858, 992 copies of Second Edition were
sold.
23rd February, 1859, iioo of the Second Edition sold.
22nd July, 1859, " a trifle more than twelve hundred."
1st November, 1859, 1340 were sold, of which 60 went at the
October sales.
13th April, i860, nearly 600 left of Second Edition.
7th November, i860, " there remain unsold 300 copies and a little
more " of Second Edition.
17th April, 1 86 1 (before vol. ii. came out), there remained 150
copies of the Second Edition.
15th June, 1 86 1, there were 74 copies remaining.
Vol. ii. : " My second vol. (edit. 3000 copies) was delivered to
the trade on i8th of May. The trade subscribed for 900 copies,
Mudie's 100. There were orders in the house for 230. Total
taken, 1230.
" On 25th May, ' nearly 1600 ' were sold.
"On nth June, 'over 1700.'
" On 15th June, 1900 sold."
For the Translations and Editions see the Bibliograi)hy of this
work.
Henry TJiomas Buckle. 89
Mr. Capel, and where he is, and how he is. When
he last wrote to me, he was about to go abroad with
your boys.
" I am much better, but still, as a precautionary
measure, abstain from all work. I hope that you
are all well. Give my best regards to Mr. Huth."
On the 15th we met Mr. Buckle at the station,
Mrs. Henry Huth writes, and saw him get out of a
third class carriage with his little dog " Skye," who
had been specially invited. Skye had never travelled
by rail before ; and when Mr. Buckle had to change
at Croydon, and saw him taken out of the dog-box
trembling all over, he preferred rather to get into a
third class carriage with him than have him put
back, and consequently caught a cold, which he did
not get rid of for a week.
He told us that he felt much stronger, and
intended to try to work for a couple of hours every
day. In the evening he brought a heap of news-
papers and other periodicals, and letters, into the
drawing-room, which he had found awaiting him
at Oxford Terrace, and had not had time to read
before coming on to Sutton. They all had refer-
ence to his second volume ; the periodicals con-
taining reviews which the publisher or friends had
90 The Life and Writings of
sent him, and the letters from people in almost
every class of society, all saying something about
his book.
One of the most curious among them was from a
public-house keeper at Glasgow, who said that
every word of Mr. Buckle's character of the Scotch
was true, and that he himself would have written it
just as Buckle had done, but that he had not
learned to write books. He finished up with a
long poem, which Mr. Buckle read out to us with
mock solemnity, full of conceits on his name ; he
would buckle on his armour, and buckle to, and
buckle with, nor care for the buckling of bigotry's
face, but take up his buckler, &c. &c. Another
letter was from a young American lady, who was
pained to think that the author of the History of
Civilization in England was so little valued in his
own country. Would it comfort him to know that
a heart was beating for him on the other side of the
Atlantic — a heart full of admiration and warm and
lively sympathy .-* Many of these communications
were from mechanics ; one, which was afterwards
found among Mr. Buckle's papers, was from the
Lieutenant-Governor of Rhode Island, who also
sent him a copy of his work ; and another, also found
among the posthumous papers, was as follows : —
Henry Thomas Buckie. 9 1
" Boston, U.S., 9/// August, 1861.
" Dear Sir, — In your last volume I observe you
despair of carrying out your primal idea. Did it
never occur to you that you might do three tunes
the quantity of work thrice as easily, by having the
assistance of a skilled amanuensis.? It is a source
of EXTREME regret that I did not propose to poor
Macaulry what I now take the liberty of doing to
you.
" I am by birth an Englishman, 38 years of age,
a rapid penman, a stenographer, have since the age
of 14 years, filled various arduous and responsible
positions ; for half my life, certainly, I have been
used to write from dictation, and can enable my
employers to do more business in one hour, and in
better shape, than they would do for themselves in
six : this may seem incredible, but it is absolutely
the fact. I can refer to numerous friends in England
and America to testify as to my character for
probity and honqur. My salary is §1500 {i.e. 300/.)
but I feel I am frittering it away uselessly while
such men as yourself and Mr. Macaul<y could
render such increased service to the world, with
assistance such as I can afford them.
" I am of strictly temperate habits, of an ener-
92 TJic Life and Writings of
getic disposition, not ill-mannerdly nor unamiable
I believe, am married, have a small family, am in
comfortable circumstances, own my little cottage
and bit of ground, but will cast my bread upon
the waters if you say the word : that you want me ;
for the chief aspiration of my existence is to be
useful to my age, and I know my position and my
power ; and I know, too, how liable I am to be
charged with egotism when I declare to you THE
FACT that I am confident you would find me to be
as invaluable as your own right hand.
" I send herewith a few specimens of my recent
composition, as indices whereby you may judge of
my calibre. I also enclose a copy of a few of my
testimonials, printed by myself, for — among other
accomplishments — I am amateur printer ; also a
photographer, &c., &c. I send you a portrait of
myself, done by myself, and remain
" With the greatest regret,
" Very respectfully,
" Your friend and servant.
" Do you mean to answer all those letters ?" I
inquired. "No, not all," he said; "there are too
many. But I always answer the misspelled ones."
Henry Thomas Buckle. 93
We read as many of the reviews out loud as we
could get through in one evening. Among them
was one which said that the second volume was as
full of platitudes as the first ; while as for that
truism which he dwelt so much on in his first
volume, that the progress of civilization depends
not on moral but intellectual progress, it was
known and recognized by every one long before
his book was thought of. Mr. Buckle laughed, and
said, " I have been attacked on this point more than
all the others put together ; and now it is called a
truism."'
The drawing-room was given up to him during
the morning as a study ; and for the first few days
of his visit he attempted to read German for a
couple of hours, in preparation for his third volume,
for he was always re-studying the languages of
those countries on which he wrote. He soon found,
however, that his brain was still too weak. It was
not a question of prudence in taxing it, but simply
of possibility. In place of it, he frequently in-
dulged in the "luxury" of thinking. The greater
part of his two volumes, he told us, he had thought
out while out walking ; and here, he would go out
and sit in some field thinking over such subjects
^ See above, vol. i. p. 148, and note.
94 J^^^^ Life and Writings of
as whether Germany or America should be first
treated in his next volume. Even Skye was not
allowed to accompany him on "thinking mornings,"
but delivered over to the custody of one of the
boys. Sometimes the dog escaped, and went for
long excursions on its own account ; but Mr. Buckle
would never allow him \.q be beaten when he
returned, as the boys advised : he gave him a
gentle tap with one finger, talked to him reprov-
ingly, and pointed in the direction in which he had
run away. And Skye really looked as if he under-
stood it. " If a dog cannot be trained without
being beaten," he said, " it is better that he should
not be trained at all." Once, when he saw one
of my boys with a dog-whip he advised me not to
let him have it. " No boy ought to be entrusted
to handle a whip," he said. " They can never have
sufficient judgment to tell when, and in what degree,
they should use it. Boys are, besides, generally
cruelly inclined, and this propensity ought to be
more carefully checked than any other ; for
cruelty is, perhaps, the worst of vices; and cruelty
to animals almost worse than cruelty to human
beings, so utterly helpless are they. For this
reason Rarey's system of breaking horses was so
meritorious, because he substituted firmness and
Henry Thomas Buckie. 95
kindness, for unthinking brutality." For his dog
he had a great affection ; indeed, he said that he
could not conceive it possible for anybody to have
much to do with any animal without getting fond
of it.
Mr. Buckle's proof of the non-dynamical cha-
racter of morals, though it seems clear enough to
most readers, was, nevertheless, often misunder-
stood. Many people thought that because morals
were incapable of producing civilization, Buckle
considered them to be useless. The reason was,
that so many fail to grasp the difference between
general and individual effects — a subject which is
discussed elsewhere in this volume. Hence it was
that a gentleman once said to him, pointing to his
little boy, " Were I to act in accordance with your
teaching, I should take all possible pains to culti-
vate the intellect of that child, and leave his moral
character to take care of itself." Yet it would be
impossible to state more distinctly the exact oppo-
site of Mr. Buckle's ideas on education. The first
thing to look to was a child's health and moral
character ; the cultivation of the intellect was
secondary ; and a healthy child, \v hose tastes had
been fostered but not forced, would obtain know-
ledge for himself when his mind was sufficiently
96 TJic Life and Writings of
matured. The only time he had punished his
Httle nephew was once when he had bullied his
sister. On the other hand, his constant advice to
Mr. Capel was : " Don't give the boys too many
lessons." Were it necessary to neglect one of the
two, he would rather have the intellectual side
abandoned than the emotional and moral. And
most particularly in the case of women, in whom
he valued "womanly" qualities far more than
cultivated intellect. It was on this account that
he thought it so bad for a woman to remain
unmarried ; " for," said he, " unless occupied in
active benevolence, their affections are starved in a
celibate state."
We were talking one evening of that passage in
his second volume : " They taught the father to
smite the unbelieving, and to slay his own boy
sooner than propagate error. As if this were not
enough, they tried to extirpate another affection,
even more sacred and more devoted still. They
laid their rude and merciless hands on the holiest
passion of which our nature is capable, the love of
a mother for her son. Into that sanctuary they
dared to intrude ; into that they thrust their gaunt
and ungentle forms."'" "Mr. Capel," I said, " is
•0 Vol. ii. p. 407.
Henry Thomas Buckle. 97
always preaching severity to me, and wanting mc
to act the Spartan." " Don't listen to him,"
remonstrated Mr. Buckle. "Never hide your affec-
tion from your children. No succes.ses in after-life
which severity can lead to, will ever conipensate
for the want of a mother's love."
I remember the sad expression of his face whilst
talking on this subject, the sadness with which he
spoke of the lot of those who have no one to love
them, and no one whom they may love. " I keep
my affections alive by reading Shakespeare," he
said. Sometimes, indeed, his own bereaved state
would produce fits of depression, and despair of the
future ; but he never saddened others by dwelling
any length of time on the blessings which had
been denied to him ; and his buoyant and sanguine
temperament made him habitually look at the
bright side of everything. His studies, which had
made him better acquainted than most people with
the enormous amount of misery- to which mankind
has been, and is, subjected, had not extinguished
his conviction that the total amount of mundane
happiness exceeds that misery ; one of the best
proofs of which is, that were it not so, people would
not cling as they do to life. He sympathized with
Wilhclni V. Humboldt's saying, that in '■ that mar-
vni,. IF. H
98 The Life and Writings of
vellous piece of work, man, both grief and sensi-
bility may coexist with a temperament otherwise
happy." ^^ But the sentence preceding this : " True
sorrow is ever present to a well-nurtured soul,'"- he
would have put : " Only those of a powerful imagi-
nation are capable of feeling true sorrow ; for they
alone can idealize the object of their affection.
Whatever new ties they may afterwards form,
however enjoyable life may again become to them,
the image of the lost one will be ever present.
The unimaginative may feel, perhaps, the absence
of a familiar face ; but their loss is nothing more
than a broken habit." For him, then, it was plain
that the loss of his mother was irreparable. From
the time of her death he had never been able to
talk of her. If his friends tried to lead him on to
that topic, he always changed the conversation.
Once only, when we happened to talk of fine
womanly natures, their characteristics, and how
they differed from others, he burst out with, " I
wish you had known my mother! Shewas "
But this was the only time we heard him allude to
her. His aunt was very unhappy about it, thinking
" In clem wunderbaren menschlichen Gemiith konnen Schmerz
und Empfindung eines in anderer Hinsicht glucklichen Darseins
gleichzeilig nebcn einander foitjeben.
12 In gutgenarteten Seelen ibt ein wahrer Schmerz immer ewig.
Henry Thomas Buckle. 99
that could he be got to talk of his mother his grief
might be softened. But old Dr. Mayo recom-
mended that he should be allowed to follow his
instinct. " Wait a little, and he will begin to speak
of her of his own accord, and then she will be on
his lips continually." And the event justified the
prediction. A gentleman who met Mr. Buckle not
long afterwards in Egypt, said that he spoke so
much of her that it produced the impression that
she was still alive ; while the writer in the Atlantic
Monthly, who met him at Cairo, says that Mr.
Buckle declared most impressively his belief in a
future state, and that life would be insupportable
if he thought he should be for ever separated from
one person — probably his mother." '^
When Mr. Buckle first joined us at Sutton, con-
tinues Mrs. Huth, he told us that bodily he was
much stronger, and could do a little work ; but it
was evident that his head was still very weak.
Soon after his arrival he endeavoured to explain to
me the theory of latent heat. I failed to under-
stand it, and after a time he stopped abruptly and
said : " I have not my powers of explanation ;
perhaps I shall be better able to make it clear to
you some other day." Undoubtedly it was my
" Atlantic Monthly for April, 1863, p. 498.
H 2
lOO The Life and Writings of
fault for being so dull of comprehension ; but how
often had I been as dull, and even duller, on former
occasions ! Yet never before had he dropped a
subject before he had given me a clear view of it.
After a fortnight had passed he seemed to grow
stronger, though he still complained of his nervous-
ness and absence of mind. The fact that he had
sent off a cheque and forgotten to cross it, seemed
to annoy him very much. " I should not have
done such a thing a year ago," he said. Yet he
was now able to enter into elaborate explanations,
giving, for instance, a full account of the Utilita-
rian philosophy a propos of MilFs first chapter on
that subject, which was expected in the forthcoming
Fraser. Mr. Buckle gave us its whole history, from
the germ of the idea to its latest development. But
it seemed to me so cold and mechanical a creed,
so inadequate to -meet human needs, so harsh to
human weakness, that for several days afterwards
I kept attacking him on that subject. " You will
see it in time," he said gently. " It is very natural
that you should find some difficulty at first in
thinking yourself into it. You have grown up,
and lived all your life, in an atmosphere of theolo-
gical ideas, and you cannot change suddenly. But
you will see it in time, for you have a very good,
clear understanding."
Henry llionias Buckle. loi
I repeat this compliment, such as it is, not from
any sense of vanity, but simply because it was the
only one he ever paid me, and because the way in
which he said it was characteristic of him. Most
people consider themselves gifted with a clear
understanding ; yet, so afraid was he lest he might
be thought to flatter, that he immediately added :
" And I don't say this just to give you pleasure ;
I mean it really,"
When the first chapter of the Utilitariaiiisni
appeared, Mr. Ruckle was delighted with it : and
pointing out a single passage said, " Now, if I had
seen this, no matter where, I should have recog-
nized the pen of Mill. He is the only man I
have a very strong desire to know, and him I have
never seen." "Then why did you not accept Mrs,
's invitation, when she promised to bring you
together.'" "Oh, I was not strong enough this
summer," he answered ; " the excitement would
have been too much for me." And in the course
of the conversation he observed : " If Mill and I
differ in opinion on any subject, I always have a
latent belief that he is right and that I am wrong."
From Mill the conversation turned on other emi-
nent men. Of Dr. Stanley he spoke very highly :
" He thinks for himself;" and, contrasting him with
other theologians, said that few went through the
102 The Life and Writings of
necessary study for their subject. Theologians
should study the history of belief in all the ancient
creeds. That a knowledge of Buddhism is neces-
sary, for instance, to the right understanding of
Christianity. " Buddhism," he continued, " is, be-
sides, a most philosophical creed ;" and he traced
the analogy between the transcendental philosophy
of Buddha and that of Fichte in its pantheistic
tendencies. From pantheism to spirit-rapping was
but a step ; and one of us remarked that some of
these spiritualists make a religion of it, and hold
in the greatest reverence any communication they
may receive. A little girl got a message from her
departed grandmother, advising the family to go
to the pantomime ; and accordingly all gravely
went off, in obedience to the message. " And very
good advice, too," Mr. Buckle said, smiling. He
added, that he had himself been at a seance last
June, for the first time in his life. Some of the
manifestations seemed to him totally inexplicable
by any known natural laws ; but he meant to
inquire into the subject carefully as soon as he
should be restored to his usual health. He con-
sidered it the duty of every one, to rescue pheno-
mena from the domain of the miraculous, and to
marshal them, whenever possible, under the heads
Ilcnry T/iomas Buckle. 103
of natural law. Neither the so-called experiments
of Reichenbach, nor the marvellous powers ascribed
to clairvoyants, would he pronounce to be frauds.
But in all these matters he thought that people
were far too ready to play into the hands of de-
ceivers, by being more eager to sec and be asto-
nished than to coolly balance facts and ascertain
the truth. Mr. Mayo had pressed him to attend a
clairvoyant's sc'ance ; and he agreed to do so, with
the condition that, instead of the guinea entrance
fee, the clairvoyant should have a fifty pound note
if he could read its number while it was enclosed
in a box. But this condition was not accepted.
He had a short time before been at a scaiicc in a
private house, where the clairvoyant was a young
lady, a friend of the hostess. He did not exactly
disbelieve in her powers, as he had not investigated
the subject. She told him, among other things,
that his skull was remarkably thin : and he really
thought it was, he added, laughing.
Whenever he travelled about he always got
into conversation with the police and school-
teachers of every place he stopped at. He used
to inquire what particular crimes were prevalent in
each district ; and found that they were much the
same all over the country : " People have so little
I04 Tlie Life and Writings of
imagination," he complained with a grave face — as
if this want of imagination in criminal acts were a
matter of serious concern to him. In large towns,
such as Birmingham, he used to walk through all
the worst parts, to observe manners for himself;
and remarked that he might, as in the well-known
anecdote, put down under the head of manners —
none. In answer to a question, he said it might
have been dangerous for a weak man like himself,
but he was tall and carried a good stick, and
always walked in the middle of the road to give
less opportunity to people to pick a quarrel. It
was necessary to see everything he wrote on, espe-
cially concerning England, with his own eyes.
Of the teachers he inquired, among other things,
what w^ere the punishments inflicted in their
schools. One schoolmistress told him that when
she first came, finding that the girls were very un-
punctual, she warned them that all who came late
should have three strokes with the cane on the
hand, and that after the first two weeks she very
rarely had occasion to punish them. The master
of a school in another place told him, that the
vicar had forbidden corporal punishment, and
obliged him instead to keep the boys in and give
them tasks ; with the consequence that they be-
Henry TJiomas J ruckle. 105
came very much duller. " There is nothing like
the cane," Mr. Buckle added ; "a few strokes, that
sting and will be felt several hours after, make a
boy careful, and don't interfere with his health."
" You must deal with boys cither in a rational or
in an irrational manner," he said to another friend.
" If they will listen to the arguments of their
superiors, you do not require punishment ; but if
they will not listen to reason, you must treat them
as irrational beings, and flog them." Some of these
village teachers were well informed men. One of
them spoke to him of the authors of the Essays
iDid Rcvicivs, praising their boldness ; and then
went on to say, " But there is another, even bolder
man, of whom, I daresay, you have heard, and
whose book you have probably read, I mean
Buckle." "What has he done.?" Mr. Buckle
asked. "Buckle, don't you know Buckle!" "I
saw that I was falling in his esteem through my
ignorance," Mr. Buckle added, laughing, " so I said,
' Oh yes, Buckle to be sure ;' and took my leave."
It is impossible to describe how thorough a
master he was of the art of pleasing ; how he was
as ready to amuse the children, as he was grown
people ; his joyous nature ; his inexhaustible, but
never tiring, talk ; his wealth of anecdotes, and
1 06 The Life and Writings of
especially the zvay in which they were told, which
made them as amusing when he repeated himself
(as he sometimes did), as when heard for the first
time ; or to describe his appreciation of every little
attention ; and the warm interest he took in what
were matters of moment for others. How naturally
he entered into all the hopes and fears of his
hostess concerning her family, asking questions,
giving advice, and all with the deepest interest !
We remember how touched and soothed we felt
when one of our children fell ill, and we, hearing its
cries, rushed up to the nursery, leaving him alone
in the drawing-room. We stopped there some time,
and quite forgot our visitor ; but when we came
out he was standing, waiting patiently, outside
the nursery-door, to learn from us what was amiss.
I see the expression of his face now as he said to
us in a suppliant tone, " Don't look so anxious ;
it will be better to-morrow." And the next day,
gently reproaching me, he said, "You ought not to
have let so young a child go to the Crystal Palace.
It is all very well for the elder ones to have such
amusements, but the little things should be kept
as quiet as possible ! And then he went on to say
at what age, and with what temperament, sight-
seeing and the like excitement was beneficial, and
Hairy TJio^nas Ihickle. 107
when it was likely to be harmful; adding, "Now,
if you had asked my advice, I could have told you
all this yesterday, and the child would have been
saved pain " — so accustomed was he by this time
to have his advice sought on every subject. " If I
were to take a profession/' he once said, " I should
like to be a physician; nothing would give me more-
pleasure than to assuage pain,"
An old lady, who had known Mr. Buckle from
his boyhood, burst into tears when these and other
little stories were repeated to her. "It was not
vulgar curiosity with him," she said ; " it was not
that he was meddlesome. I knew him so well. It
was all part and parcel of his great sympathy. Oh
it was more than human," she went on, " and im-
parted a more than earthly soothing effect. I
shall never forget what he was to me when I found
myself suddenly alone in the world, and what he
was to me ever afterwards. Even though he had
only a few days in town to prepare for his Eastern
journey, he walked across the park to see me, and
to bid me farewell. He asked about my health ;
he gave mc advice. He did it as if it were both
a pleasure and a dut}- to see that I did the right
thing for myself before he left England. I am
neither handsome nor clever, nor have I rank or
io8 The Life and JVritifigs of
title, but he never forgot that his mother had been
fond of me ! And I have often been made a good
deal of by other people, simply because they saw
that the celebrated Buckle treated me with such
respect."
Often was Mr. Buckle attacked by his friends
because he did not marry ; but the fact was, that
up to his mother's death he never felt lonely ; and
perhaps his previous wounds, and his entire devotion
to his book, made him even unwilling to marry.
But after this he acknowledged his mistake — he
was alone, terribly alone, in the world. " If at
least my little nephew had lived," he said, " I
should have had a friend in time : I would have
made something of him. But," he continued in a
lower tone, " what I love I lose ; and now that I am
near forty I am alone ! "
" If I am not better there is nothing for it but
travelling ; as while I am stationary I must work,"
he wrote long ago;'^ and it was much the same
case now. The prospect of an idle winter in town
was insupportable, and it was necessary to travel
somewhere. Perhaps it was owing to Major
Woodhead's suggestion that he finally decided on
going to Egypt. " My head is at times still weak,
i* To Miss Shirreff, 22nd Dec, 1856.
Henry T/iomas Buckle. 1 09
and I feel that I need more rest and relaxation,"
he writes from Sutton/' and " I cannot tell you,"
he writes to Mrs. Bowyear, " the intense pleasure
with which I look forward to seeing Egypt — that
strange mutilated form of civilization. For years
nothing has excited me so much.'" I shall go up
the Nile as far as Egypt, and probably return to
England about the end of January."
It was all of a piece with his thoughtful and self-
sacrificing kindness that he ofifered to take the two
eldest sons of his host with him. What would he
himself have given when a boy to have travelled in
the land of the Thousand and One Nights ! And
holding travel to be a necessary and important
part of education, and knowing the value of his
own influence and teaching, he thought the im-
mense benefit he was conferring would fully com-
pensate him for the trouble, anxiety, and even
labour, their companionship must entail. " Even in
our times the importance of travelling is obvious,"
he writes in his Co)nino7i-Place Book^'' " and we
rarely find an untravelled man who is not full of
prejudice and bigotry."
>* 24t]» .September, 1861.
" 13th— 19th October, 1861.
" Fragments on Travelling. Miscellaneous and Posthumous
Works, vol. i. p. 524.
I lo The Life and Writings of
All his time, on returning to London, was
occupied in preparation for his journey and that
of his young companions: —
"59, Oxford Terrace, \ith October, 1861.
" My dear Mrs. Huth,— I have just had a long
talk with the dear, kind old man, Dr. Mayo. Ex-
tremely satisfactory in every, respect, particularly as
to the good, both physical and intellectual, which
he anticipates for the boys. But he suggests one
or two things of importance. * * * *
" My conversation with Dr. Mayo has confirmed
my confidence in being able to meet any event
which can arise in the ordinary course of nature.
And as impunity and absence of risk are always
impossible, this is all we can expect. Give my
love to the boys, and read this note to the little
men. I am sure they will be very obedient, and,
by their docility, will help my endeavours to secure
their health and happiness."
" 59, Oxford Terrace, \Wi October, 1861.
" Dear Mrs. Grote, — Your friendly reproaches
have reached me at a moment when I am in the
[To face f. no, Vol. If.
l^'j^trt^J^iun,/ ^ CLih l^:t ^?4<, Lau.
/ I ^
t-X^ ^ Jjtu ^ylt, iul^ A
^'4, //^
JyU^ ^^tiuu. tUi^i^
Ileniy Thomas Buckle. 1 1 1
midst of preparations for my departure to the East,
and have consequently but a short time to defend
myself. Early to-morrow I leave for Southampton,
and sail thence for Alexandria. I shall ascend the
Nile to the first cataract, and thus gratify one of
the most cherished wishes of my childhood. I am
literally pining with excitement at the prospect of
seeing the remains of that powerful but imperfectly
developed nation, whose existence has always been
to me as a dream. .
" I am much better, and, indeed, quite well in
every respect, save the most important. I cannot
work, and therefore my life has not been very
happy ; but, on the other hand, It has sauntered on
untroubled. I have been travelling in Wales and
many parts of England, spending nearly three
weeks at Carolside, in Berwickshire, with the
Mitchells — pleasant and accomplished people, and
extremely kind.
" I wish for the next few months to sever myself,
if possible, from all old associations, and, as it were,
begin life afresh. Consequently, I shall write no
letters, and shall not have any forwarded to me.
After Egypt, perhaps I may go to Greece, perhaps
to Algiers, perhaps to Jerusalem : but wherever I
may be, I shall retain a lively sense of the pleasant
1 1 2 The Life and Writings of
hours I have passed with you. Sometimes I fear
that I have permanently hurt myself, and form
plans of leaving London altogether — but time will
show."
ircnry Thomas Buckle. i i
CHAPTER VII.
ON Sunday, 20th October, 1861, Buckle
embarked at Southampton on the Penin-
sular and Oriental Company's steamship Ceylon,
for Alexandria, and saw the shores of England for
the last time. He had now undertaken, for the
first time in his life, the responsible care of two
children, one fourteen and the other eleven years
old, of whom, moreover, he knew little beyond
what he had gleaned from their parents and the
family physician. He knew his responsibility,
and undertook their care as none without his
depth of feeling and warmth of heart could have
done. How he understood it is shown by the
following letter, written soon after his return from
Nubia : —
" I do not wonder at your anxiety in being so
long without intelligence ; but I have done all in
my power, and have never, since wo left England,
VOL. II. I
1 14 The Life and Writings of
allowed a post to go by without writing. Your
picture of }'our imagination of my hanging over
the bed of a sick boy, and bringing you back a
child the less, has gone to my very heart, and
made me feel quite miserable, since I know what
must have passed through your mind, and what,
you must have suffered, before you would write
this. But why, dear Mrs. Huth, why will you
allow your judgment to be led captive by such
dark imaginings } I never begin any considerable
enterprise without well weighing the objections
against it. In taking your children where I have
taken them, and where they are about to go, I
have estimated all the difificulties — or, if you will,
all the dangers, and I knoiv that I am able to meet
them. I say that I KNOW it. And I am too deeply
conscious of my own responsibility to write such
a word loosely or rashly. Here, as elsewhere,
some rare combination of events, or some insidious
physical action, creeping unobserved through the
human frame, and stealthily coming on years
before, may prostrate one of your boys, as it may
prostrate you or your husband. This may happen
in the healthiest climate, and in spite of the
tenderest care. But it is my deliberate opinion,
that until you see your boys again they will run
Flenry Tho)nas Bitclcle. i i 5
no risk greater tliaii they would have run had they
spent the same thne under your roof. The excite-
ment of the brain caused by travelling and the
scenes through which they pass, is in itself a source
of health ; and though you of course love your
children better than I do, and better indeed than
any one does — for who knows so well as I that no
love can equal the love of a mother ? — still, even
you could not watch them more carefully than I
do ; and, as you would be the first to acknowledge,
you would watch them with less knowledge both
of what should be guarded against and what
should be done. The boys are, and have been all
along, in perfect health. * * * As the boys were
vaccinated three years ago, there is no occasion to
repeat the operation. The protection is complete.
There are instances of persons having the small-
pox who have been so recently vaccinated, just as
there are instances of persons having the smallpox
twice. But there arc also instances of people being
killed on the railroad ; and as there are no rail-
roads in Palestine or Syria, we may fairly put one
danger against the other, both being about equal.
* * * i\Ieanwhile, do not be uneasy ; I pray >'ou,
do not be uneasy. I know well what I am doing,
and I know how much depends on my doing it
I 2
1 1 6 The Life and Writings of
proper!}'. Besides, if j.'OU give way to anxiety
you will make yourself ill ; and if you get ill, my
excellent friend Huth will hate me as the cause,
and, maybe, will poison me in my food when I
come home. So be of good cheer."
They had not got cabins together, as Buckle had
taken his before it was decided that the boys
should accompany him ; but they were not sepa-
rated even for one night, for, on the day they
started, the two gentlemen who had berths in
Mr. Buckle's cabin good-naturedly exchanged, and
they were all together. To this Mr. Buckle alludes
in one of his letters : " I had a little difficulty
about getting them into my cabin, because I had to
talk over two different gentlemen, the inmates of it.
But, somehow or other, I generally end by getting
my own way, and we are now all together."
Buckle at this time was aged thirty-nine, but
looked fully forty-five and would have looked even
older but for the rich brown colour of his hair. A
tall and slender, but not thin figure, slightly bowed;
a dignified carriage ; a bald head, with the hair
brushed over it, as in the frontispiece ; the begin-
nings of a beard ; a short, slightly aquiline nose ; a
high forehead ; and singularly vivacious eyes made
up a figure which struck one as refined, notwith-
Henry Thomas Buckle. 1 1 7
standing his shabby, though by no means slovenly,
dress. He wore for the journey an old swallow-
tailed coat, of a cut that was somewhat out of date,
but such as I have seen worn by old-fashioned
men ten years after his death ; a double-breasted
brown waistcoat, and dark trousers. In cold
weather he wore an old brown overcoat, which he
had worn for many years, and hoped to wear many
years more ; for, as he says in one of his letters,
" My maxim is economy, not parsimony ; and
though I never throw away money, I never spare
it on emergencies." He thought that men should
be careless of their dress, and had a great contempt
for those who decked out their persons with jewels.
But he liked to see women pay attention to dress,
and once said, " it was a woman's duty to look well,"
as long as they did not pay too much ; though he
would rather see a woman careless than vain, and
slovenly than devote all her thought to personal
decoration.
His care and attention to the two boys was
unremitting, and during the first two or three days,
while they were still sea-sick, he used even to
fetch them books, wrappers, and all they needed.
The only books he had brought with him were,
Sharpe's History of E^ypt, Osborn's Monumental
I rS The Life and Writings of
History of Egypt^^ Martineau's Egypt, Past and
Present, Russell's Egypt, Bohn's Herodotus, Mil-
man's History of the Jezvs, Murray, the Bible,
Shakespeare, and Moliere ; and he allowed no
others, because he wished to drive the boys by
very weariness to read the books he had brought,
knowing well, that since they were accustomed to
read, and as there was little that could amuse them
on board, they would require no other inducement
to read on the history of the country they were
about to visit. His plan was perfectly successful,
and they not only read, but took a pride in read-
ing. For himself, besides talk, his chief amuse-
ment was draughts with a gentleman on board,
who happened to be a good player, but who could
never understand how it was that Buckle always
won.
Nothing of interest occurred during the voyage,
with the exception of some wonderful theatricals
brought out by the sailors, who acted a tremen-
dously sensational piece called, " Red-hand, the
Gypsy." They painted their scenery themselves,
with foliage that might have been drawn by an
ancient Egyptian ; and the only drawback to the
full enjoyment of the play was, that the orchestra
> Which he thought did not add to the reputation of its author.
Henry Thotnas Biukle. 119
shut out all view of the stage. The usual sights
were seen ; the rock of Gibraltar examined, and
the view enjoyed from St. George's Gallery.
Valctta was also visited, and the Church of St.
John duly admired. The sea, which had been
rather rough until Gibraltar was reached, was like
glass from there to Alexandria.
At landing the usual scene occurred, familiar
now to all the world. Little has changed since
then. As soon as the Indian passengers had gone
off, a boat was selected from the surrounding
flotilla, and the party made for a wooden pier, so
tightly packed with yelling Arabs that at first it
seemed impossible to land. A plentiful use of the
stick from the presiding sheik at length made it
possible. How the luggage got up was a mystery ;
but it did, and a seething mass of blue and white
cotton rags fought a battle over it. More use of
the stick, and each piece of baggage took a pair
of legs to itself, and went off in different directions.
It assembled again, however, where a few officials
were lounging outside a shed, and was all thrown
down in a heap in the open street. A faint show
was made of opening the biggest box, but five
shillings made everything comfortable. The Arabs
shouldered their burdens, stood in a row to be
I 20 The Life and W^'itings of
counted, and then started for the Hotel de I'Europe.
On the way there was a constant bombardment of
donkeys, who are shoved by their drivers perti-
naciously in the way ; and as the quarter just about
the landing-place is inhabited chiefly by natives,
the streets are so narrow that walking through the
donkeys is difficult. Soon a grave-looking Ori-
ental, in Turkish dress, accosted Mr. Buckle, and
showed him papers ; he was a dragoman, and was
showing his testimonials from former travellers.
Buckle promised to inquire about him, and the
hotel was at last reached. Here Mr. Buckle, after
his usual custom, engaged rooms on the top floor
of the hotel. These were nice and cool, the ther-
mometer showing only 76° ; and he then sallied
forth to the bank, for it was only 10 a.m., and
made inquiries about the dragoman, Hassan Vyse !
so-called because he had served the explorer of
the pyramids ; for the Arabs put the surname first,
and then take a distinguishing title after it. The
inquiries being satisfactory he was engaged, and the
day was finished with dinner at the table-d'hote,
and a cup of coffee at a Turkish coffee-house.
Buckle spent the first day or two in making
purchases of tobacco, Turkish slippers, a pipe, and
other preparations ; seeing Pompey's pillar, and
Henry Thomas Buckle. 121
what part of the catacombs was visible — for the
pasha had lately had them shut up, as it was reported
that some treasure had been found there. But the
greatest difficulty was finding a boat, or dahabeeyeh
as they are called, concerning which, and other things,
he wrote the following very interesting letter : —
" * * * The heat is intense, and I keep both the
boys indoors the greater part of the day. I have
tried in vain to get a good European servant, so
I see after everything myself, and am extremely
particular about their ablutions and change of
linen, so absolutely necessary in such a climate as
this. We received your very welcome letters yes-
terday, having ourselves written to you the day
before. We also wrote from Gibraltar and Malta.
I hope that we shall start for Cairo in two or three
days ; but the difficulties are great, owing to the
railroad being washed away by the unusually high
rise of the Nile. The demand for boats is conse-
quently enormous, and the prices the owners ask
are fabulous. I have seen several boats to day,
and one man demanded 35/. from here to Cairo,
a journey of three to four days at the outside. I
have been forced to expose myself nearly all day
to the sun — boat-hunting, and am rather exhausted ;
but I feel in better health and spirits than at any
I 2 2 The Life and Writings of
time during the last three years.' Especially I
am conscious of an immense increase of brain
power, grasping great problems with a firmness
which, at one time, I feared had gone from me for
ever. I feel that there is yet much that I shall
live to do, 0}ice you asked me how I rated myself
in comparison with Mill. I now certainly fancy
that I can see things which Mill does not ; but I
believe that on the whole he is a greater man than
I am, and will leave a greater name behind him.
This is egotistical, but I am only so to those I care
for ; and my letters are intended to be sacredly
private to you and your husband, though I am
always willing that my dear old friend Capey' shall
see them — but NO ONE ELSE.* Tell him, with
my best love, that I have received his letter, and
will write to him from Cairo.' Your sons are
everything I could wish ; they attach themselves
much to me, and I to them. A Scotchman on
board said, "Why, dear me, sir, how fond those
* I. e. Since the death of his mother.
3 The Rev. George Capel, an old friend of both Mr. Buckle and
the Huths, and the means of introduction between them.
* This is the first time this passage has seen the light ; but now
that both Mr. Buckle and Mr. Mill are dead, there is no longer
any occasion to suppress it.
* This letter was written, but I have not seen it, and do not know
whether it exists.
Henry Tlionias Ihic/cle. i 2 3
boys do seem of you !" And so I am sure they
are, I hope and believe that this journey will be
an epoch in their lives, morally and intellectually.
They are very diligent in reading ; but I never
prescribe any hours or daily task, merely telling
them that the only reward I require for watch-
ing over them is, that they should acquire know-
ledge. * * *
" Tobacco and pipes are very cheap ; everything
else enormously dear : ale, two shillings a bottle ;
soda water, one shilling ; miserable carriages, six
shillings an hour ; and so forth. And yet, with
all this the labour market is in such a state that an
unskilled labourer earns with difficulty twopence a
day. Wages low and profits high."
At length he found a suitable boat, iron-built,
and with superior fittings — not so luxurious as many
that are now on the Nile, but incomparably superior
to those of Miss Martineau's time. It belonged
to Abdallah Pasha, a European, had the reputation
of being fast, and was called El Ablch or the Wild
Otic. Its hire was 60/. a month, a largish sum
then, but nothing to what is now given. Buckle
ordered it to proceed to Boulak as soon as it could
be got ready, for the railway had been repaired
sooner than was expected, and it would have been
124 ■^^^'^ Z.//^ and Writmgs of
useless to dawdle away time on a canal. The
exposure to the sun, however, brought on so sharp
a choleraic attack, that he had to keep his bed the
greater part of the day, and only set out for
Cairo on the next. But when he got to Cairo he
was so little the worse for it that, despite his six
hours' railway journey, he spent the evening in
" exploring " that city, with some friends he had
made on board the Ceylon.
The party put up at the Hotel d'Orient, which
at that time had the garden of the Esbeekeeyeh
almost under its windows. Cairo has changed
woefully for the worse since then. The best half
of this garden has been built over ; and what
remains is laid out in French style, with grass that
won't grow, and broken and dirty little gas lamps
round its little ponds. Then it was open to every
one ; and though nothing in comparison with a
good European garden, it was beautiful in dusty
Cairo, with its luxuriant native vegetation. The
dahabeeyeh was not expected to arrive for a
week, and in the meanwhile Buckle's time was
fully occupied in seeing Cairo. His ordinary prac-
tice was to rise at six, read Sharpe's Egypt, or
Murray, or some other book on the country ; walk
fifteen minutes, and breakfast at nine. He then
Henry Thomas: Buckle. 125
went about sight-seeing, or paying visits ; took a
light lunch of bread and fruit about one o'clock ;
and dined at six ; played a game of backgammon
with one of the boys, but not immediately after
dinner, and always for some stake, generally a
halfpenny, because he considered that even a small
stake prevented reckless play ; read again from
eight to ten, and then went to bed ; or sometimes
retired a little earlier, lit a cigar, and read as long
as it lasted.
So well and joyous did he feel here, that he
made up his mind to continue his journey to Pales-
tine, and with this object bought Robinson's
Biblical Researches ; and an Arabic grammar and
dictionary, for the purpose of studying Arabic.
He soon found, however, that his brain was not
yet strong enough to allow him to study so diffi-
cult a language, and had to put it aside.
From Cairo he writes as follows, 15 th Novem-
ber, 1 86 1 : —
" We hope to leave here for Thebes to-morrow,
provided the boat can be provisioned by then.
It is a first-rate boat ; and as we shall be in it
three months, I am doing what I know you
would do if you were here, sparing no expense
in laying in every comfort that can ensure health.
1 26 TJie Life and Writings of
I feel the responsibility of your dear children, per-
haps more than I expected, but I am not anxious ;
for I am conscious of going to the full extent of my
duty, and neglecting nothing ; and when a man
does this, he must leave the unknown and invisible
future to take care of itself. * * =i= If the boys im-
prove still further in health, and if I find that they
are reaping real intellectual benefit, I propose
taking them in February to Jerusalem, and thence
making excursions in Palestine — explaining to
them at the same time the essential points in
Jewish history, and connecting it with the history
of Egypt. The few books which I require can be
got here ; all except one, viz. Stanley's Sinai and
Palestine. This you (all my letters are to you
and your husband jointly) will please to get, and
send to Briggs, at Cairo ; also some letter stamps,
and a letter of credit on Jerusalem, or some place
as near Jerusalem as possible. I shall write to
England by this mail for more money for myself,
and therefore I shall only use your letter of credit
to about the extent of your boys' expenses.
Furthermore, I shall want a letter of credit on
Constantinople, as I propose sailing for that city
direct from Palestine, and then ascending the
Danube to Vienna (now a very easy journey), and
meeting you all there in May or June. To make
Henry TJiomas Buckle. 127
sure, it may be advisable to send, by separate mails,
duplicate letters of credit on Jerusalem and Con-
stantinople. I could draw all the money here,
but there is the chance of robbery in the desert.
There is NO FEAR OF VIOLENCE, for I shall have
the best escort that money can procure. My
maxim is economy, not parsimony ; and though I
never throw away money, I never spare it on
emergencies. If in the spring there are any dis-
turbances in Arabia or Syria, be you well assured
that I shall not set forth there. I find that my
reputation has preceded me here ; and as I know,
consequently, some influential persons, and amongst
them a pasha and a bey, I shall have the best in-
formation as to what is going on in the countries
through which we are to pass.
" I am better than I have been for years, and
feel full of life and thought. How this country
makes me speculate ! I am up at six o'clock
every morning, and yet there seems no day — so
much is there to see and think of. I try to pour
some of my overflowings into the little chaps ;
time will show if I succeed, but I think I shall do
something towards making them more competent
and finished men than they would otherwise be.
" And now, my dear Mrs. Huth, do you seriously
expect that I am going to answer your questions
1 28 The Life and Writings of
of casuistry about going to church, expressing
free opinions, and fuller amusement — questions
which it would take pages to answer. All I can
say is, that the true Utilitarian Philosophy NEVER
allows any one, for the sake of present and tem-
porary benefits, either to break a promise or tell a
falsehood. Such things degrade the mind, and
are therefore evil in themselves. But if you made
a promise to your child, and then found that keep-
ing this promise would ruin the health of your
child, what sort of mother would you be if you
were to keep your promise ? The other point is
more difificult ; but / would not hesitate to tell a
falsehood to save the life of any one dear to me —
though I know that many competent judges differ
as to this ; and in the present state of knowledge
the problem is perhaps incapable of scientific treat-
ment: it is therefore, in such cases, for each to
act according to his own lights."
The boat did not arrive till Tuesday, 20th No-
vember, when Ayrton Bey, a friend of Buckle's,
who had also once occupied the boat, called to tell
him that it was at Shoubra. Thither Buckle and
the boys walked, and had their first sail up to
Boulak. The next day they took up their abode
on board ; but delay in provisioning and then con-
Hciiry TJiomas Buckle. 129
trary winds prevented a start before Sunday 25th ;
and altogether the journey up to Thebes was not a
very rapid one.
But for all that the days passed quickly enough.
The hours kept were much the same as at Cairo.
Buckle took care to have his daily walk before
breakfast, and generally managed to g:t another
walk of about an hour in the course of the day.
Sometimes he read in the forenoon, sometimes he
was engaged in ticketing and cataloguing antiqui-
ties, which he now began to collect, and in which
he took a great interest. The afternoon was spent
in games of backgammon, in smoking, and reading,
or in teaching the boys ecarte and draughts ; but he
always expected them to read the greater part of
the morning ; and he taught them to make maps
of Egypt and Palestine. During the walks he
questioned them on what they had read, told them
stories, and taught them elementary physiology,
explaining the human anatomy, and even making
them remember its barbarous nomenclature, know-
ing well that a knowledge of anatomy without this
would be like a knowledge of geography without
the names — but always taking especial care that
these should not be merely names to them, but
represent real ideas. If there was any rule as
VOL. IL K
130 TJic Life and Writings of
regards their health which he particularly wished
to impress upon them, he told them anecdotes of
cases in which they had been disregarded, with all
the dreadful consequences ; and such anecdotes
were indelibly fixed in their memory. He would
also make them write out lists of dates, such as
the Conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, by Alex-
ander, and Amrou ; the taking of Jerusalem by
Nebuchadnezzar ; the foundation of Samaria ; the
Conquest, by Titus, &c., &c., and carry these lists
about with them, so as easily to fix them in their
memory ; while to see that they did so, he would
question them while on their walks. As before,
however, he never forced the boys to read ; he
only made them understand that he was pleased
if they did, and hurt if they did not ; and as a
further, and perhaps necessary precaution, where
the choice lies between Robinson's dry researches
and Shakespeare, he removed the latter.
Buckle's own account of his system of education
is given in the following letter : —
" \\th December, 1861.
" The journey up the Nile, though slow, has not
been dull, as we have plenty of occupation ; and
Henry Thojnas Buckle. \ 5 1
the boys, 1 am truly pleased to say, are most
anxious to instruct themselves, and without any
pressure on my part they read quite as much as
I wish. Lest the long confinement should be iri-
jurious, I stop the boat twice every day, and we
walk with an escort on shore. Then, and in the
evening, I talk to them about what they have seen
and read, and having encouraged them to state
their opinions, I give them mine, and explain how
it is that wc differ. They have accumulated a great
number of historical and geographical facts. But
that is not my chief object ; what I aim at is, to
train them to consider everything from the largest
and highest point of view that their years and
abilities will allow. To this I make everything
subordinate, save and except their health. At
first they were evidently bewildered by the multi-
plicity of new details which crowded on their
minds ; but gradually those details took a regular
and orderly form, spontaneously arranging them-
selves under general heads. To hasten this move-
ment, without overworking their brains, is the most
difficult part of m\' undertaking. But I will venture
to say, that if you could now see them you would
be convinced that their health must have been well
attended to ; while if }'ou could talk to them, you
K 2
I ;^2 The Life and Writmgs of
would be equally well satisfied respecting the other
part of the question. Perhaps this sounds too much
like praising myself ; but your children are so far
from you, that I had rather be deemed vainglorious
than conceal facts concerning them which it will
please you to hear. * * *
" Besides the general history and geography of
the East, I am teaching the boys by conversation
(for I have no books on ilic subject) the elements
of physiology, and explaining to them the general
laws which connect animals with plants. Two or
three days ago I first began to proceed further, and
opened up the relations which the animal and
vegetable kingdoms bear to the mineral world.
was never weary of listening, and asking ques-
tions. * * * His eyes quite sparkled, and beamed
with light, as he traversed (though of course very
indistinctly) the field of thought.
" You have, I suppose, received a letter which I
wrote from Cairo. * * * If so, I must trouble you
to send to the same address another parcel, contain-
ing Josephus's History of the Jezvish War ; his Own
Life, and his Antiquities of the jfezvs. As these
are for the boys, they must all be in English. The
translation of the Jeivish War by Traill is better
than the old one by Whiston. I also want Jahn's
Ilcnry Thomas Buckle. 133
Hehrciv Commonwealth, and a volume on the histor)',
Src, of Palestine, published in the Edinburgh
Cabinet Library ; likewise a very small volume
on Human Physiology, forming part of Chambers's
Educational Course. I am not quite certain as to
the title, but you can hardly mistake it, as the
subject is the Physiology of Man, and it is a thin
one-and-sixpenny, or two-shilling book, with cuts.
Then, some more thin writing paper, and a small
but good revolver, with a leather belt in which it
can be worn — such belts are made expressly.
The revolver should be as light as is consistent
with its being an effective weapon. But you know
that I am not expert with fire-arms ; it must not,
therefore, have any needless complications. * * *
"The boys' Bible has no Apocrypha ; and I want
to explain to them the chaiacter of that most
remarkable Maccaba^an revolution which broke out
two centuries before Christ. If, therefore, you can
buy the Apocrypha separate, and in a portable
form, do so ; but it is not worth while to send out
another whole Bible, as my memory will enable me
to explain the main points without it.
"We live in great comfort, and indeed luxury ;
an iron boat, with good bedrooms, and a saloon
that could dine eight persons ; and we sail quicker
134 ^''^^^' ^V^' L'ii^ii Writings of
than any boat on the Nile. I have engaged the
cook the Rothschilds had when they were in Egypt.
He is really a first-rate cook, and makes, I think,
the best bread I ever tasted. I let the boys live
generously ; but I carefully watch the effect of
their food, and occasionally put them on a spare
diet, to avoid medicine. * * * They get up before
seven, and go to bed at 8*io. The latter part
of the arrangement they don't always approve of,
but they never resist me when they see I am in
earnest ; and I am peremptory on this point,
believing that early sleep is of supreme importance
to them, living as they do amidst such exciting
scenes, and with their attention continually on the
stretch. * * *"
Perhapsthe following two letters from thetwoboys,
written for the same post as the above,will show more
clearly than anything the nature of this education : —
" We have been on the Nile about three
weeks, and expect to be at Thebes in a few
days. We have not seen any temples or tombs
yet, except the tombs at Siout, which is the
capital of Upper Egypt. The tombs there are not
nearly as good as we shall see when we are coming
back. But I have picked up a piece of mummy
cloth ; and I have bought a little idol of our
Henry T/ionias Buckle.
io
donkey-man, which I gave twenty paras for (which
is equal to three farthings), Mr. B. says that it is
sure to be real, because it does not pay to forge
such cheap things. You cannot think how jolly it
is. Mr. B. lets us do what we like ; and the only
lessons we do as yet is reading. * * * We have seen
no crocodiles yet, but Hassan says that we shall
see plenty by-and-by. I mean to buy a small one,
and send it home to be stuffed, unless I get a letter
to the contrary when we get back to Cairo. I have
made a little map of Egypt, and I mean to mark
the places that we have been to, and then send it
to you when we get back to Cairo. This letter
will be posted at Thebes, and we have told Briggs
to forward your letter there. The Egyptian post
goes as far as Assouan, which is at the first
cataract. Mr. B. thinks of going to Nubia, as far
as the second cataract ; but it depends on the size
of the other boat which we shall have to hire at the
first cataract. In your next letter, tell me if you
would like a mummied cat. I am not quite sure
whether I shall be able to get it, but I think I can.
Ask Mr. C. if he would like one too ; as I am afraid
there is no chance of getting any models — but I
shall try and get a photograph of the P}Tamids.
The wind has just got up, and we are sailing fast ;
136 The Life and JVritings of
if it keeps so we may get to Thebes to-morrow ;
but we are only going to post letters there, and
then go on, for we do not mean to see any remains
till we come back. We have got about the best
boat on the Nile, and the best cook, and a very
good dragoman, who was a long time with Colonel
Vyse, who explored the Pyramids, and discovered
some chambers in them. I have read Sharpe's
History of Egypt, and Martineau and Russell's
Egypt, and Herodotus, and now I am reading the
History of the Jeivs. I shall not tell you anything
about Mr. B.'s plans for Syria and Palestine and
Mount Sinai, as he will most likely tell you more
about it than I could ; but won't it be jolly to go
to all these places ! We are all jolly, and Bucky
is a brick.
" Please answer about the crocodile, and all that,
or else I shall not know what to do. * * * Tell
that Mr. B. says there is no fear of the Arabs
stealing us, because it would not be worth their
while : but he is afraid they will steal him, because
he is such a nice little fellow."
The second letter is as follows : —
" * * * I have finished Sharpe's History of
Egypt, and Milman's History of the Jews ; and now
I am going to begin the Bible, and read all about
Henry Thomas Buckie. 137
the Jews in there. We have been talking to
Mr. B. about physiology, and he says when we
have finished reading about Egypt and Palestine,
he will write for a book about it. We have got a
very good boat ; it is built of iron, and has beaten
three boats already that started two days before
us. I have made a map of Egypt and a map of
Asia Minor. To-day 1 saw rafts of pottery coming
from Kenneh. Wc have got a very good cook.
He can make plum-pudding, and he can make
Irish stew as well as Mr. Buckle's cook. Here, we
always have marmalade and curry for breakfast.
The time here is about six hours faster than in
England, because we are so much farther east. It
is about as hot here as it w^as last summer in
England. Mr. Buckle has been explaining to us
the relation of minerals and plants and animals to
each other, and the way in which animals get
minerals through plants ; and that while animals
are poisoning the air, plants are purifying it. * * *
I have finished reading Herodotus, Martineau and
Russell's Egypt. When we came to Alexandria,
Mr. Buckle allowed us two shillings a week."
Thus was the time passed daily on the Nile,
until six o'clock brought the proof of the cook's
skill which we have seen praised so highly in his
138 TJic Life and ]]^ri tings of
letter. After dinner, he sat with the boys in semi-
darkness for a quarter of an hour or so, playing
and joking with them, till they generally ended in
a violent romp, and now and then a smash of
crockery or windows. A breakage, however, had
to be paid for. Buckle himself boasted that he had
never broken anything since he was quite a youth,
with the exception of one tumbler, which had
slipped through his fingers on a very cold day ;
and he gave the boys a special allowance to pay
for their breakages, with the result that such
accidents were not nearly as common as they
otherwise would have been, for the boys had
plenty of use for their money. They, too, took an
interest in antiquities and curiosities, and began to
form a collection, in which they were much as-
sisted by Buckle, and allowed to think that the
assistance was reciprocal.
A good wind brought the dahabeeyeh to Thebes
on the 14th December, with "all well and
in high spirits." They immediately landed, and,
after seeing Luxor, visited Karnak, " that wonderful
temple," as Buckle cannot resist calling it in his
diary. The following day Luxor ^\'as again visited,
and then he crossed the Nile, and saw the Mem-
nones — the temples of the Memnonium, and Me-
llciiry Thomas Ihicklc. 139
cleenet Haboo, and finally, after dinner, went to Kar-
nak, "and saw that prodigious ruin by moonlight."
" One thing I will say," he afterwards wrote
from Cairo, " that everything which travellers
relate of Egypt fails to give an idea of the real
wonders of this most interesting country. To tell
you that I have seen a single ruin (the temple of
Karnak at Thebes) which, when complete, measured
a mile and a half in circumference, sounds very
strange ; but that is nothing when 9ompared with
the amazing grandeur of the colossal statues, and the
pillars which support the edifice. And then, the
minute finish of the sculpture which covered the
walls of the Egyptian temple, is as noticeable as
their grandeur."
And again he writes to another friend : —
" To give you even the faintest idea of
what I have seen in this wonderful countrv, is
impossible. No art of writing can depict it. If I
were to say that the temple of Karnak at Thebes
can even now be ascertained to have measured a
mile and half in circumference, I should perhaps
only tell }'Ou what you have read in books ; but I
should despair if I were obliged to tell \-ou what I
felt when I was in the midst of it, and contemplated
it as a living whole, while every part was covered
140 The Life and Writings of
with sculptures of exquisite finish, except where
hieroglyphics crowded on each other so thickly
that it would require many volumes to copy them.
There stood their literature in the midst of the
most magnificent temples ever raised by the genius
of man. I went twice to see it by moonlight, when
the vast masses of light and shade rendered it
absolutely appalling. But I fear to write like a
guide-book, and had rather abstain from details till
we meet. One effect, however, I must tell you that
my journey has produced upon me. Perhaps you
may remember how much I always preferred form to
colour ; but now, owing to the magical effect of
this, the driest atmosphere in the world, I am
getting to like colour more than form. The endless
variety of hues is extraordinary. Owing to the
transparency of the air, objects are seen (as nearly
as I can judge) more than twice the distance they
can be seen in England under the most favourable
circumstances. Until my eye became habituated
to this, I often over-fatigued myself by believing
that I could reach a certain point in a certain time.
The result is a wealth and exuberance of colour
which is hardly to be credited, and which I doubt
if any painter would dare to represent. * * * If you
were here, and felt as I do what it is to have the
Henry TJiouias Buckle. 141
brain every day over-excited — be constantly drunk
with pleasure — you would easily understand how
impossible much letter-writing becomes, and how
impatient one grows of fixing upon paper ' thoughts
which burn.' But, as you know of old, if my friends
were to measure my friendship by the length of
my letters, they would do me great injustice,"
Colour was, however, his oldest love, to which he
now returned, and with even more ardour and devo-
tion, after seeing Petra, with its perpendicular walls
of living rock, honey-combed with temples, dwell-
ings, and tombs, and streaked with colours so bright,
so various, and yet in such perfect harmony, that
no one who has not actually seen it, can form any
idea of the general effect — an effect which is further
heightened by the tumbled masses of rock, and the
bushes and trees which hang on every ledge and
spring from every fissure.
The view over the Libyan plain of Thebes is
perhaps the most beautiful, and certainly the most
characteristic, in Egypt. For beyond fields of
lupins and waving corn, still sit the two colossi, as
they have sat for three thousand years — now, alas !
sadly battered, but yet majestic in their solitary
grandeur. A little to the right and behind is the
Memnonium, with its background of the Libyan
14^ ^J^^ic Life and Writings of
hills, which catch the parting rays of the sun on
their white and broken cliffs ; and the slope of the
Assaseef, riddled with gaping tombs. Still further
on the right are the remains of the temple of El
Goorneh^ and a collection of mud huts of the same
name ; while on the extreme left are the huge
mounds and mighty ruins of the temple of Medeenet
Haboo.
A final look at the latter temple, and at certain
tombs of the Assaseef and its neighbourhood ; and
then, at five o'clock on the i6th, sail was made
for Assuan, which the "Ablch" reached on the
22nd.
As is usual, however, a halt had been made at
Esneh, to allow the crew to bake their bread ; and
Buckle occupied his spare time in visiting the shame-
fully neglected temple of this place. Here were two
other boats — the "Fortunata," on board of which was
Mr. Longmore, who has since written an interest-
ing account of his meetings with Buckle during
the journey ; and the " Canopus," occupied by two
clergymen. On board the latter^ Mr. Longmore
made Buckle's acquaintance, and thus records the
conversation : — " Though he smoked continuously
during our interview, he was by no means solely
occupied with that recreation, for he talked nearly
Henry TJionias Buckle. J 43
as continuously. A good deal of the time during
which we were on board the " Canopus " together, he
spent in maintaining that a constitutional country-
like England was never so well governed as when
the sovereign was either a dSaiic/u' or an imbecile.
In proof of this rather paradoxical position, he
instanced the reign of Henry the Third ; and Charles
the Second, to which we owe our Habeas Corpus
Act, and one he still more admired, de nofi Coni-
burendo Hereticos ; ® and those of George the Second
and George the Third, — as the reigns in which we
had made the greatest progress. With the Pharaohs
and Ptolemies of Egypt, and other absolute
monarchs, it was different, for they, if energetic
men, could do what they liked with the resources
they governed, and thus leave to posterity such
wonderful monuments of their macfnificence as we
*i3'
* This proposition is sketched out in that part of the Introdudiott
to the History of Civilizatiou, which refers to the attempt of the
Spanish governments to improve the people. On the Act Je non
Comburendo Hereticos he has the following ; — "By the old law of
England the bishops were not allowed the luxury of burning heretics,
except by the authority of a writ issued by the king in council. But
Henry the Fourth jirocured a law ordering that all heretics were to
be judged by the bishop of the diocese, and, if found guilty, to be
burnt without any reference to the consent, or even to the knowledge,
of the crown." Tp. 120, 121, vol. i. Buckle's PosthumCiiis and
MisceUaneous Writings; fragment on " Bishops," under the "Reign
of Elizabeth."
144 ^^^'-^ -Z^Z/l' ajid Writings of
had recently been admiring on the banks of the
Nile.' " Subsequently, during the same visit to the
* Canopus,'" continues Mr. Longmore, "some refer-
ence being made to modern spiritualism, Mr. Buckle
graphically narrated his experiences during a seance
at which he had been present shortly before leaving
London. This seance took place in the house, he
said, of a Cabinet Minister, who, he was quite
satisfied, would not have lent himself to any
collusive trickery to facilitate the proceedings of
the mediums. The chief of these was Mr. Home ;
and various marvellous phenomena were produced,
more particularly the floating of a large circular
drawing-room table in mid-air. These manifesta-
tions Mr, Buckle was unable to explain on any
known physical laws, ' But," he added, ' while I
cannot admit there is anything supernatural about
them, I think it quite possible there may be a
development of some new force, well worthy of
scientific investigation,' He afterwards mentioned
7 He could not, however, have meant that under capable despots
there is as much progress as under imbecile monarchs in free con-
stitutions. What he probably said was, that these monuments
were raised because the government was despotic in its strictest
sense, which implies misery to the people. And secondly, that
under a despotic government the country is wholly dependent on
the capability of its ruler — progressing under a great man, and
going back again under a reckless or foolish one.
Henry TJiomas Buckle. 145
that Mr. Home called on him shortly after the
seance, and told him that he was anxious that he, a
man well-known in the literary world, and recog-
nized as no grantcr of propositions he had not duly
examined for himself, would take up the subject
of spiritualism, and after sufficiently testing the
reality of its phenomena — in doing which Mr.
Home offered every assistance in his power —
announce to the world to what conclusion he had
come. Mr. Home volunteered that, whenever Mr.
Buckle wished it, he would readily come to his
house, and perform his experiments there, so that
there might be no suspicion of apparatus or collusion
being employed to deceive him. In conclusion,
Mr. Buckle told us he was so pleased with Mr.
Home, that he was quite willing to agree to his
proposal ; but that the second volume of his book
being then nearly ready for the press, his time had
been so occupied with it that he was quite unable
to take the subject of spiritualism up before his
health broke down, and he was compelled to leave
England. But he was resolved to investigate it on
his return home — a return which, alas ! never took
place.
"8
' From Mr. J. A. Longmore's account in the Al/ieitcEuni, p. 115,
No. 2361, for 25th January, 1S73.
VOL. II. L
146 The Life and U^ri tings of
At Assouan Mr. Buckle again met Mr. Long-
more ; and since with returning strength his love
of conversation was also returning, seeking a
cultivated companion to whom he could talk
during his projected tour in Palestine, he invited
him to accompany him during that journey ; but
Mr. Longmore was unfortunately obliged " reluct-
antly to decline."' Here arrangements were made
for hiring another boat ; for though all but the
very biggest dahabeeyehs can pass the cataract, yet,
as " El Ableh " was built of iron, any damage she
might receive in the passage could not have been
repaired in so primitive a place. To a wooden
boat an occasional bump against a rock does no
harm, and the only danger that is run is the chance
that the boat may escape down the rapid — a danger
which is effectually guarded against by ropes made
fast to rocks ; the boat is then hauled up a little
further and again made fast, while the first ropes
are loosed, and the process repeated,^"
9 Atheiiaum, p. 115, 25th January, 1S73.
1" Mr. Glennie says : — " Still grander, however [than ascending],
was the shooting of this First Cataract, on our descending the Nile
three weeks afterwards. Some travellers do not risk it ; nor, I
believe, did Mr. Buckle ; but I found it one of the most glorious
sensations I ever experienced." — Pilgrim Memories, p. 21. A
truly heroic feat ! which strangely recalls to us the anecdote told to
Pepys of the passage of a Frenchman through London Bridge,
Henry Thomas Buckle. 147
The boat engaged for the Nubian trip was little
better than a common merchantman, the wild pro-
totype of the civilized dahabceyeh. Many windows
were broken ; and though Buckle had a letter of
introduction to the Governor of Assouan from his
Cairene friends, all his power was unable to produce
a square inch of glass, and they had therefore to
be patched up with paper. Two days were occu-
pied in transferring stores, during which Buckle
visited the Cataracts, the island of Elephanta, and
" the beautiful island of Phila;," and also bought a
great many antiquities.
He started on the 24th December, came back on
the 8th January, and the next day the party rode
back to the dahabeeyeh, which seemed quite a palace
after the wretched boat they had just left. " We
have all been, and are, remarkably well," he writes.
" The journey into Nubia, notwithstanding its many
discomforts, was in the highest degree curious and
instructive ; and, as I took extra precautions as
regards diet and health, it did us no harm. * * *
The heat in Nubia was intense. On Christmas day,
at half-past eight in the evening, it was in my cabin
*' Where, when he saw the great fall, he began to cross himself and
say his prayers in the greatest fear in the world, and, soon as he
was over, he swore ' Morbleu ! c'est le plus grand plaisir du
monde.'" — Pepys^ Diary, Sth August, 1 662.
L 2
148 The Life and Writings of
81° Fahrenheit, though the sun had been excluded
all day. Not one Egyptian traveller in ten enters
Nubia ; but; as you see, I felt confident in bring-
ing us all well out of it ; and now that we have
been there, I would not have missed it for
500/. I feel very joyous, and altogether full
of pugnacity, so that I wish some one would
attack me — I mean, attack me speculatively. I
have no desire for a practical combat." And to
his aunt he writes from Cairo : — "The Nubian part
of the journey I had to perform under circum-
stances of considerable discomfort in a common
trading boat ; but every step was to me so full of
interest that I was amply repaid."
Everything was ready for the departure, but the
wind blew strongly from the north, and forced a
delay. Here a Mr, Glennie, who was in a daha-
beeyeh on its way up, took the opportunity of having
the news of the Prince Consort's death to commu-
nicate, to call on Buckle and introduce himself.
The conversation on that occasion was, as always
with Buckle, extremely animated, and, as Mr.
Glennie says, was chieflyon spirit-rapping, as was the
conversation with Mr. Longmore at Esneh. There
is, however, this difference between the two conver-
sations as recorded by Mr. Longmore and Mr. Glennie
—that while at Esneh Buckle said that he was
Henry Tlumias Buckle. 149
unable to explain the phenomena on any known
physical laws, and added, "While I cannot admit
there is anything supernatural about them, I think it
quite possible there mFiy be a development of some
new force well worthy of scientific investigation,"
At Assouan he is declared to have believed they were
supernatural, and performed by spirits, though the
movements of table and chairs might not be ; and
to have listened with respectful attention and
admiration to the explanation, that "just as the
molecular motion of one organ of an animal body
varyingly affects, and is affected b}% the dynamic
equilibrium, of every other organ ; so may indi-
vidual bodies, conceived as systems of motion, not
only varyingly affect, and be affected by each
other, through a mechanically conceived medium ;
but such influence may be a consequence of mental
actions which, if they have all mechanical equiva-
lents, would, through a medium, be mechanically
communicable."'-
Though Buckle was an admirable listener, I
do not think he would have had patience to listen
to eight pages of this. Be this as it may, however.
Buckle, as he previously asked Mr. Longmore,
now asked Mr. Glcnnie to join him on his tour in
" AtheniruM, jx 115, 25th January, 1S73.
'' Glennie, nigrim Memories, pp. 9 — 17.
150 The Life and Waitings of
Palestine, and accepted, as he always was ready to
accept, an invitation to spend the evening on board
Mr. Glennie's boat. His diary of this day has the
following entry: — "Thursday, 9th January, 1862.
The Nile. Rose at 6.40. Breakfast at 8. At [9]
left the boat we had been in to Wady Halfeh, and,
riding to Assouan, embarked there in our old boat
Walked i hour. Dined at 6. Spent the evening
in the dahabeeyeh of a Mr. Glennie, who called on
me this afternoon. In bed at 10.10, and to 11.40
read the Bible."
On the following morning, notwithstanding the
strong north wind, a start was made. Buckle
made but few entries concerning what he saw, but
he remarks at Edfoo, " Carefully examined the
magnificent temple there, which is the most com-
plete and interesting in all Eg}^pt." Ever since he
had left Thebes especially he had taken the greatest
interest in collecting antiquities and curiosities, with
which he intended to form a museum in the stable
belonging to his house. " Connecting these
ivith my reading," he said, " I think I shall make
a very interesting collection." Nothing cam^e
amiss to him ; specimens from the various quarries
of Egypt, Nubian and Arab dresses, ornaments,
weapons, and utensils, and as many antiquities as
Henry Thomas Buckle. 1 5 1
he could collect — not confining himself to objects
bearing an art value, but also buying ancient head-
rests, mummy linen, wooden bolts and spoons, and
mummy heads, hands, and arms. lie loved to
trace the likeness between the ancient and modern
forms of utensils and weapons ; and took so great
an interest in ever}-thing, that he often said, were
he only rich enough he would have all the hiero-
glyphics in Egypt copied. The following extracts
from his catalogue will give some idea of what he
collected : '^ —
"4. Part of a mummy-case, found in the Libyan
suburb of Thebes, 22nd January, 1862. This is
curious from the similarity to our mutes with their
wands — two of the Genii.
" 8. The sun in the sacred boat. Found in
the Libyan suburb of Thebes, 20th January, 1862.
Tablets of this sort were worn suspended round the
neck of the Egyptian judges, and are the supposed
origin of the Urim and Thummim of the Hebrews.
See Martineau's Eastern Life, 1850, pp. 379, 380.
13 Compaie Mr. Glennie's, "He interested himself comparatively
but little in the ancient hieroglyphics of Egypt," and " He admired
the art of Osirianism, though he dismissed its faith as superstition,
and was hence, perhaps, more anxious to preserve its Idols than to
understand its Gods." — Pp. 49, 54, Pil^im Memories; where a
good deal more of the ILlce nonsense may be found.
152 The Life and Writings of
"43. A piece of mummy-covering, found in the
Libyan suburb of Thebes, 20th January, 1862.
This is curious, as showing hoAv the Egyptians
used to represent their enemies on their shoes, for
the purpose of trampHng on them. From the long
noses the captives are probably intended for Jews.'''
' "89. A stool used by the Abyssinian women to
lean their elbows on. It was made at Gondar, and
I bought it of an Abyssinian at Assouan, on 23rd
December, 1861. I have seen exactly the same
stool represented in some of the Egyptian tombs.
"232. Model of the stool, or xvooden pillow, used
by the ancient Egyptians to rest the head on. It
was found in a tomb in the Libvan suburb of
Thebes, i6th December, 1861. Exactly the same
kind as is now used by the Abyssinians.
'■* Compare the story of 'Ala ed-Deen Abu-sh-shdmat, in which
'Alaed-Deen is ordered to be hung by the Khaleefeh. But a friend
of his repaired to the prison, and said to the jailer, "Give us some
one who is deserving of being put to death." And he gave him one
who was the nearest of men in reseniblance to 'Ala ed-Deen, who was
hung in his stead. But now the Khaleefeh wanted to see the body.
" So the Khaleefeh went down, accompanied by the Wezeer Jaafar,
and proceeded to the gallows ; and raising his eyes he saw that the
body which was hanging there was not that of 'Ala ed-Deen."
" How do you know ? " asked the Wezeer ; and to his reply that this
body is long, and the face is black, explains that these are the
results of hanging. But the Khaleefeh has the body cut down, and
finds written on the heels of the corpse the names of the two
Sunnce saints, whereas 'Ala ed-Deen was himself a Sunnee.
Henry Thomas Buck le. 153
" 226. A gilt figure of the sacred tan, or sign of
life. It was presented to the king when he as-
sumed the government, and the early Christians of
Egypt adopted it in place of the cross.
"414. Four small cymbals, played with the
finger and thumb. They were made at Cairo,
where I bought them 17th February, 1862. They
supply the place of castanets in the Almeh dance,
and were the origin of the Spanish castanet.
Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, 1 854, vol. i. pp. 98,99,
"416. The sling commonly used in Egypt to
drive birds from the field. It will hold several
stones. Such slings are often represented on the
old Egyptian monuments. This was made at
Cairo, where I bought it on 7th February, 1862.
" 456. The ordinary Egyptian darabooka, or
drum. It is used all through Egypt, and nearly
every boat on the Nile is provided with one. Pre-
cisely the same instrument is depicted on some of
the oldest Egyptian monuments. This I bought
at Cairo, 19th February, 1862. *
" 483. A specimen of the ancient Egyptian
bricks, made of Nile mud and straw. I took this
on 13th January, from the walls of Eileithyas, now
called El Kab, situated about fifty miles south of
Thebes.
154 ^-^^^ Zzy^ and Writings of
" 339- An imperfect figure of Atome, wliich I
bought at Cairo on nth February, 1862. His
head is decorated with the lotus and plumes, and
feather of Ammon. See Birch's Gallery of An~
tiqjnties, pp. 21, 22, where he is called Nofre-
Athom. He is the Athmon, or Athmoo, of Cham-
pollion, Wilkinson, and Rosselini. According to
Mrs. Lieder, he was the great god of Heliopolis,
and was the parent of mankind — the same as
Adam.
" 344. A rare, and unusually perfect figure, which
I bought from the Odelschachi collection at Cairo,
7th February, 1862. It is like Fig. 16 in Birch's
Gallery of Antiquities, except that Isis and Nep-
thys are not supporting its sides. It represents
Pthah 'in his twofold capacity of Pthah and
Socharis.' In his human type he is 'standing
upon two crocodiles ; perched upon his shoulders
are two hawks, which indicate his dominion over
the upper and lower hemispheres.' ' The goddess
Pasht, bearing on her head the solar disc, and with
long wings pendent from her arms,' considered as
Merepthah, or the (goddess) loving Pthah^ aids
him behind.' — Bireh, pp. 15, 16. 'Pthah, or Ptah,
was the principal deity and protector of the ancient
city of Memphis.' — Bireh, p. 13. * His worship was
Henry TJiomas BiicJde. 155
of the highest antiquity, his name appearing on
monuments coiival with the Pyramids themselves.'
— Birch, p. 14. The fact of tliis figure of Pthah
wanting Isis and Nepthys at the sides proves, says
Mrs. Liedcr, its great antiquity."
Six days were spent at Thebes, two of which
were devoted almost entirely to antiquity-hunting,
and the others to sight- seeing, and such antiquities
as chance offered. On the 20th January, El Ableh
again started, but Buckle wrote nothing concern-
ing the sights he saw, or deeds he did, during his
journey down the Nile except the description of
Thebes already quoted, and a pleasant account of
his visit to Abydos, concerning which he says,
" That I have not already been thrown is a marvel,
seeing that among other audacious feats I went
from the Nile '^ to Abydos on a donkey, with a
cloth for a saddle, and two pieces of rope for
stirrups, and in this wretched plight had to ride
between eight and nine hours." From his diary it
appears that he only rested three-quarters of an
hour at Abydos, and returned " quite exhausted."
The last sight before reaching Cairo was the
Pyramids. Donkeys were obtained from Cairo —
"jolly-spirited donkeys," as one of the boys writes,
'* Girgeh.
156 The Life and Writings of
"such as wc had not had for a long time up the
Nile." With his usual care, Buckle had warned
the boys not to look down on their way up the
Pyramids. He himself went up also, but took
thirty-eight minutes, and, finding the first passage
too dififtcult, he did not go inside.
At Boulak the boat was moored, but the party
were so comfortable in it, and were so much better
treated than they would have been at an hotel,
that they continued to live on board, notwithstand-
ing that the cost was nearly double.
"We have anchored one and a half miles from
Cairo," he writes, " as I think living on the Nile more
healthy than being in an hotel. I shall therefore keep
on the boat, and all my establishment, including my
virtuous and noble-minded cook, until we start for
the desert. As to cookey, please God ! he and I
will never part till the Asiatic part of the journey
is ended.
" I am glad that you thought of night- caps ; but
I did not wu'ite for them, because I did not wish to
give needless trouble, and excellent Arab caps can
be bought here. I had quite determined to pro-
vide myself with tliem. Indeed, I never let the
boys be out at all after sunset without seeing that
their ears, &c., are covered with a pocket-hand-
Henry Thovias Ihickle. 157
kerchief, which I prefer to a scarf, as less heat-
ing.
" I make no doubt that we can reach Vienna by-
June ; but to hurry ourselves would spoil all, and be
too fatiguing, as for about three months all our
travelling will be on camels and horseback. How
long do you think of staying at Vienna .-' and
would it matter if we did not arrive there till the
first week in July .' I suppose you will remain at
least a month ; and I shall be glad of a little rest to
push on the boys in their knowledge, so that they
may return to England with everything gathered
up and thoroughly digested.
" Good-bye ! keep up your spirits, and look to
the future with confidence. All will go well."
And in a postscript he asks, "^ Have you heard
ought of the Spanish translation of my History.?"
In an interesting letter written a few days before
to the father of the boys, he writes : —
"You ask me about Mill's Political Economy,
and in asking you hit one of the very few blots
made by that very great man. Mill has, perhaps,
fewer prejudices than any living writer ; but he has
never quite got rid of the influence of the old doc-
trinaire i>z\\oo\. The traditions of that school were
handed down to him by his father direct from
158 The Life and Writings of
Jeremy Bentham ; and, though Bentham was one
of the most eminent thhikers this or any other
country has ever possessed, he was so unversed in
the art of Hfe (as distinguished from the science)
that if he had possessed the requisite power he
would have inflicted more misery upon England
than has ever been inflicted on it by any single
man, ' Meddle, meddle, meddle,' is always the cry
of the speculator, unless he be practitioner as well
as speculator. Your knowledge of practical affairs
enables you to see, as it were instinctively, that
this is wrong ; though to prove it to be wrong
needs a long, a reflned, and an intricate argument.
When a man can demonstrate that a thing ought
to be, the temptation is almost irresistible to cry
out it shall be. And yet compulsion and inter-
ference are so essentially mischievous, that it is
often better (I believe I may say it is always
better) to tolerate the worst social evils than to
seek to remove those evils by the coarse hand of
the legislator. The present state of things in
England concerning Inheritance and Succession is
no doubt very bad, and does great harm ; but unless
you can convince society of the harm, any altera-
tion of the law would defeat its own aim by pro-
voking a reaction. The history of human affairs,
Henry Thomas Buckle. 159
in modern times, is the history of these reactions,
all of which have been full of danger — and none of
which would have occurred, if men would bide
their time, and would only condescend to sap
bad institutions before they try to overthrow
them.
" I am very glad that you like 's letters; but
I assure you that I have not the least hand in
them. I make a point of never seeing what the boys
write, or of suggesting to them what they should
write, except that I sometimes remind them to
let you know about their health. may possibly
have repeated part of my conversation about what
we had seen together. However this may be, I
have no hesitation in saying that both the boys are
much improving. Their habits of industry (I mean
industry as a pleasure) are so formed, that it is
quite a pleasure to me to see them take up their
books ; and they are beginning to talk with eager-
ness about saving their money when they go home
to form a library of their own. told me a day
or two ago that he now wondered that he could
ever have liked story-books, when books of history
and travels were so much more interesting. He
added, that he should get his mamma to give him
other books in exchange for his story-books, since
i6o Tlie Life and Writings of
these * * * were by no means good enough for
him.
" Such aspirations are not to be laughed at ; still
less are they to be repressed. * * *
"About the 19th or 20th we shall, I hope, cross
the desert to Sinai, and if possible go from Sinai
through Petra to Jerusalem. If, as constantly
happens, Petra should be unsafe, we shall return to
Cairo, after seeing Sinai ; and from Cairo cross
the desert, at the north by El Arish, to Gaza and
Hebron. Directly we get to Cairo I shall begin to
make preparations, and buy the tents, furniture,
&c. In Palestine and Syria I do not intend to go
into hotels anywhere, nor even at Jerusalem. They
are often damp and dirty, and I am satisfied that
tent-life, with proper precautions, may be made
extremely healthy. But I have as yet found few
travellers who will take these precautions ; and
three or four parties on the Nile who wished to
travel with us to Jerusalem, under one common
arrangement, have turned back, and declined my
plans as too extravagant. And yet, if I know any-
thing of myself, there is no one less extravagant
than I am. But in these countries (especially
when we shall undergo the fatigue of travelling
eight or nine hours every day for weeks on camels
IIcu))' TJumias BucJde. i6i
or on horseback) comfort and health are synony-
mous, I shall buy at Cairo iron bedsteads and
good thick blankets ; and looking at these and
other appliances, my dragoman calculates that we
shall need eighteen or twenty camels. At present we
have three servants — our dragoman (i. e. Hassan),
an excellent cook, and a boy about eighteen or
nineteen ; the boy is dull and inefficient, so I shall
get rid of him at Cairo,'* but the other two I shall
take on with me. Instead, therefore, of the badly-
cooked, indigestible stuff which most Eastern
travellers eat at the khans, or in large towns at the
hotels,'^ we shall be well fed ; and if I can succeed
in keeping the boys' digestive functions in complete
order, I have not the smallest fear of the fatigue
and exposure hurting them. I shall supply my
servants well with fire-arms, and have the best
escort that can be procured. My present plan is
to buy three horses at Cairo, and have them sent
on to meet us when we enter Palestine ; for some
of the best horses in the world, the fine old Arab
i" Or, as one of ihe boys lias it : " Instead of our fool of a boy,
we are going to have a man to wait on us, who has been in the desert
before. Mr. B. says that it makes him mad to talk to the boy we
have now."
•' This is all clian^'cd now, and travellers generally have their
own cooks. Even in 1862 people were beginning to travel more
luxuriously.
VOL. II. M
1 62 The Life and Writ lugs of
breed, are to be had at Cairo ; and they are perfectly
docile and capable of long-continued exertion — •
qualities in which the Syrian horses are very
inferior.
" This will be a very expensive journey ; but
looking at the objects to be attained by it, I shall
not grudge the cost, and (unless I am greatly mis-
taken in your views concerning the boys) you will
not grudge it either. At all events, it is clear that
if the journey is to be made by boys not very
strong, and by a man not much stronger, it would
be madness to spare money, when money will
increase the chance of impunity. Perhaps you will
think it unnecessary for me to have said thus much ;
and I know that in a mere pecuniary point of view
such considerations cannot trouble you. Still, no
one likes to incur expense without knowing the
reason why, and I have thought it just to give you
these details. That you will be amply repaid in
the improvement of your boys, I confidently be-
lieve ; and most assuredly if I had not believed it
nothing would have induced me to take them.
" I hope that the thinness of the envelope will
not prevent this from reaching you safely ; but I
have no thicker ones, and none are to be procured
here. We shall send home two cases of antiquities.
Henry Tli07uas Buckle. 16'^
o
Some of them are valuable, and very fragile. They
will be packed with great care, and sent to Messrs.
Briggs, at Alexandria, who will forward them to
you by the first ship which goes direct to London.
Please to be present yourself when they arc
examined at the Custom House. They contain
nothing but antiquities, on which there is now no
duty ; but be so kind as to see that every article
which is looked at, is replaced in the paper in
which it is wrapped, as such paper bears generally
some particulars respecting it, which I should be
sorry to lose."
At Cairo he greatly increased his collection of
antiquities, buying at various dealers, but chiefly
from a museum called the Odeschalchi. These he
catalogued carefully in the way which we have
seen, and the same entry was on the paper wrapper
of the article when packed. In this he v/as much
assisted by a Mrs. Lieder, the wife ol iat Lutheran
clergyman at Cairo, who had for twenty years her-
self been collecting antiquities, chiefly figures, and
afforded Mr. Buckle every assistance — looking at
his antiquities which he brought to show her, assign-
ing their period, and finally having them packed in
her own house. She and her sister delighted in
Buckle's conversation ; and though the talk was
M 2
164 The Life and Writings of
chiefly on the country and antiquities, yet the
author remembers one occasion when they asked
him to sit down and explain the accusation against
him of attacking religion (!) in his book ? Buckle
sat down, and spoke for at least half an hour with
an uninterrupted flow of words, explaining the real
position he maintained ; but the effort was rather
too much for him, and he had to lie down in his
little cabin for the rest of the day. So energetic
the mind, so weak and feeble and faint the vesture
of decay that closed it in !
We have seen that Buckle counted on at most
sixteen days' detention at Cairo, but his actual stay
was twenty-seven days. The following letter, dated
23rd February, will explain his generous reason : —
" You will be surprised to fmd that we are still
here. But I have (with some hesitation) deter-
mined to postpone our departure till after the
arrival of the ' Delta,' which, according to your
letter, received five days ago, should leave South-
ampton on the 1 2th, and should reach Alexandria
on the 25th or 26th. The truth is that the boys
are getting on so admirably, and Josephus's Anti-
quities of the Jews is so essential for their study of
Palestine, that I have deemed it advisable to forego
the advantage of an earlier start, rather than stop
Henry Tlionias Biukle. 165
the course of their readin^^ now that their minds
are fresh and ea^^cr. Had \vc left here on the 19th
it would have been impo-sible to receive this very-
important book until we reached Jerusalem, and
perhaps (so uncertain are the means of transit in the
East) we should not have received it till we were at
Beyrout, about the beginning of May. Although,
therefore, the camels have been engaged since the
19th, as well as the servants — of whom I take, be-
sides the cook and Hassan, two well-armed men, and
also two of the most influential sheiks belonging
to the tribes through which we pass (these are in
addition to the camel-leaders, etc.) — I am still keep-
ing on the boat and crew, living en prince with these
splendid establishments. But, seriously speaking,
while I see the dear little fellows so eager about
knowledge, I could not deprive them of another
chance of getting their unfortunate and long-
delayed book. When I told that you had
written to say that the Antiquities of tJie JriVswG^xc
not coming with the first parcel, I really thought
he would have cried, so piteous was his disappoint-
ment ; and • was nearly as bad. I am sure that
you did all in \-our power to push matters on, but
the delay has been vexatious for several reasons.
However, I shall have everj-thing in preparation to
1 66 The Life and Writings of
enter the desert directly Joscphus is delivered ; so
that the 28th will, I hope, see us fairly oii. In
the desert I purpose husbanding our strength by
travelling slowly ; and every five or six days I shall
encamp for an entire day, if I see the least symp-
toms of over-fatigue. Consequently we shall have
plenty of time for reading, and, I trust, plenty of
vigour for talking. At present we are all in high
health and spirits.
" The revolver strikes me as very beautiful, but
my admiration is the admiration of ignorance. The
books, shirts, etc., were all quite right. * * * "
During this stay at Cairo he read much, viz.
Kenrick's History of Egypt, Birch's Gallery of An-
tiquities, St. John's Tiirks in Europe, Renan's "in-
teresting Introduction to Le Livre de Job," Renan's
Etudes dHistoire ReUgieiix, besides finishing the
Old Testament, which he had begun on the Nile.
But this was only in the intervals and odd corners of
his time, which was chiefly spent, as I have already
said, at Mrs. Lieder's and her antiquities, and in
seeing Cairo, and his friends and acquaintances,
among whom Mr. Thayer, the American Consul-
General, by his exceeding kindness occupied a
prominent place.
The account of Buckle in Cairo is admirably
\
lie my Thomas Buckle. idl
given by an American gentleman who met him
there,'* and to whom he was introduced, as well as
to Mr. Thayer, at a dinner given by Mr. C ,
which took place at an hotel called the Restaurant
d'Auric, on February 5th. Buckle, he says, talked
with a velocity and fulness of facts that was
wonderful. The rest could do little but listen and
ask questions. And yet he did not seem to be
lecturing ; the stream of his conversation flowed
along easily and naturally. Nor was it didactic ;
Buckle's range of reading has covered everything
in elegant literature, as well as the ponderous
works whose titles make so formidable a list at the
beginning of his History ; and as he remembers
everything he has read, he can produce his stores
upon the moment, for the illustration of whatever
subject that happens to turn up.
He expressed a strong hope that England would
take no part against America, and do nothing to
break the blockade. His next volume was to be
on the United States and Germany, and would
contain a complete view of the German philosophy:
but he will visit America before he writes.
13 «« Personal Reminiscences of the late Henry Thomas Buckle,"
in the Atlantic Monthly, for April, 1S63, pp. 48S— 499 ; and I
quote as nearly as possible his own words.
i68 The Life and Writings of
Although appreciating the great work of DeTocque-
ville, he complains of the general inadequacy of
European criticism upon America. Gasparin's
books, by the way, he has not seen. For his own
part, he considers the subject too vast, he says, and
the testimony too conflicting, to permit him to
write upon it before he has seen the country ; and
meanwhile he scrupulously abstains from forming
any conclusive opinions. Subject to this reserva-
tion of judgment, however, he remarked that he was
inclined to think that George the Third forced the
Americans prematurely into democracy, although
the natural tendency of things in both countries
was towards it ; and he thought that perhaps we
had established a political democracy without
having yet achieved an intellectual democracy ; the
two ought to go hand in hand together. The
common people in England, he said, are by far the
most useful class of society. He had been especially
pleased by the numerous letters he had received
from working men who had read his book. These
letters often surprised him by the acuteness and
capacity displayed by their writers. The nobility
would perish utterly, if it were not constantly
recruited from commoners. Lord Brougham was
the first member of the secular peerage who con-
Henry Tho7Has Buckle. 169
tinued after his elevation to sign his name in full,
" H. Brougham," which he did to show his con-
tinued sympathy with the class from which he
sprang. Buckle remarked that the history of the
peasantry of no European country has ever been
written, or ever can be written, and without it the
record of the doings of kings and nobles is mere
chaff. Surnames were not introduced until the
eleventh century, and it is only since that period
that genealogy has become possible.
Another very pleasant thing, continues this
writer, is Mr. Buckle's cordial appreciation of young
men. He repeated the story, that when Harvey
announced to the world his great discovery of the
circulation of the blood, among the physicians who
received it was none above the age of forty. Mr.
Thayer told him of some of his friends who had
read his book with especial satisfaction. He
evidently took pleasure in this sort of appreciation,
and said that this was the class of readers he
sought. " In fact, the young men," he said, " are
the only readers of much value ; it is they who
.shape the future." He said that Thackeray and
Dclane had told him he would find Boston
very like England. He knew but few Bostonians.
He had corresponded with Theodore Parker, whom
I 70 The Life and Writings of
he considered a remarkable man ; he had preserved
but one of his letters, which he returned to Mrs.
Parker, in answer to her request for materials to
aid in preparing the memoir of her late husband.
Buckle says that he does not generally preserve
other than business letters.^^
He had anecdotes to tell of Johnson, Lamb,
Macaulay, Voltaire, Talleyrand, &c., and quoted
passages from Burke and from Junius at length,
and in the exact words. Junius he considered
proved to be Sir Philip Francis. He told a good
story against Wordsworth, contained in a letter from
Lamb to Talfourd, too personal to publish, but which
the latter had shown to the present Lord Aberdare.
Lamb says that Wordsworth, who worshipped
nobody but himself, affected to slight Shakespeare —
said he was a clever man, but his style had a good
deal of trick in it, and that he could imitate him if
he had a mind to. " So you see," whites Lamb,
" there's nothing wanting but the mind.""°
Mr. Buckle had a very low opinion of the ancient
Egyptian civilization, differing in this respect
altogether from Hekekayan Bey, an Armenian, a
1" This letter did not arrive, and must have been lost in the post.
2" Buckle kept a small Common-Place Book for anecdotes, and
this is among them.
Henry TJiomas Buckle. i 7 1
.well-read, intelligent man, and formcrl)' Minister of
Public Instruction, who was one of the company/'
Buckle declared that the machines, as figured on
the monuments, &c., are of the most primitive kind ;
and that learning, by all accounts, was confined to
the priests, and covered a very narrow range,
exhibiting no traces of acquaintance with the
higher useful arts. He says that it is a fallacy to
suppose that savages are bodily superior to civilized
men. Captain Cook found that his sailors could
outwork the islanders. For Turkish civilization he
had not the slightest respect, and said that he could
write the whole of it on the back of his hands ;
and here Hekekayan Bey cordially agreed with
him.
Mr. Thayer asked him, if in England he had
been subjected to personal hostility for his opinions,
or to anything like social ostracism .' He said
generally not. A letter from a clergyman to an
acquaintance in England, expressing intense anti-
pathy to him, although he had never seen the
writer, was the only evidence of this kind of oppo-
sition." " In fact," said he naively, " the people of
" Author of a Treatise on tlie Chronology of the Siriadic
Monuments, 1863.
" Compare the Rev. A. K. II. Boyd's " I have mildly ventetl
my indignation ; and I now, in a moral sense, extend my hand to
172 The Life and Writings of
England have such an admiration of any kind of
intellectual splendour, that they Vv'ill forgive for its
sake the most objectionable doctrines."
He told the company that the portion of his
book which relates to Spain^ had been translated
into Spanish.-^ Mr. Thayer remarked, that to this
circumstance, no doubt, we may ascribe some part
of the modern regeneration of Spain, the leading
statesmen being persuaded to a more liberal policy ;
but this view Buckle disclaimed, with an eagerness
seeming to be something more than the offspring of
modesty.
After dinner, continues the contributor to the
Atlantic Alont/ily, we returned to Mrs. R.'s
apartments, where we had tea. Buckle and
Hekekayan now got into an animated discussion
upon the ancient Egyptian civilization, which
scarcely gave the rest of us a chance to put in a
Mr. Buckle. Had he come up that corkscrew stair an hour or two
ago, I am not entirely certain that I might not have taken him by
the collar and shaken him. And had I found him standing on a
chair in the green behind the church, and indoctrinating my simple
parishioners with his peculiar notions, I have an entire conviction
that I should have forgotten my theoretical assent to the doctrine
of religious toleration, and by a genUe hint to my sturdy friends
procured him an invigorating bath in that gleaming river." — P. 650,
vol. lix., Fraser's Magazine, No. 354, for June, 1859.
"'' At the instance, risk, and under the superintendence of Mr
Henry Huth. But Mr. Buckle was enjoined not to mention this fact.
Jlciiry T ho urns Jhuklc. i ']'},
single word. It was, however, exceedingly interest-
ing to sit and listen. Indeed, although there was
nothing awful about Buckle, one felt a little
abashed to intrude his own remarks in such a pre-
sence. We stayed until near midnight, and then,
taking our leave, Buckle accompanied S. and myself
as far as the door of our hotel. Buckle received
most kindly all suggestions made to him of books
to be read on American affairs, and people to be
seen in the United States.
On February 9th, Buckle dined with Mr. Thayer
at the Hotel des Ambassadeurs. Buckle was in
excellent spirits, and, as before, was the life of the
party. They had been terribly afraid lest he and
Hekekayan should get into another long dispu-
tation, for the excellent Bey had fortified himself
with new materials ; but the ladies were taken into
their confidence to aid in turning the conversation,
should it be necessaiy, all of which made a great
deal of entertainment ; but there proved to be no
occasion for anything of the sort.
Buckle told some capital stories : among them,
one against Alison, almost too good to be true,
namely, that in the first edition of his History he
mentioned among the causes of the French Revo-
lution " the timber duty," because he had read in
I 74 The Life and Writings of
a French pamphlet that there were popular dis-
contents about the droits de timbre. Alison's
History, he said, is the very worst that ever was
written.-^ He cited the definition that " fine writing
is that which is true without being obvious." In
the course of the conversation — in which, as before,
. Buckle touched points in the whole circle of litera-
ture and science, giving quotations even in Hebrew
-* He has many, and by no means complimentary, remarks on
Alison's History in various parts of his writings : '* Began to read
for the first time Alisoi's History of Europe, of which I looked
through his very superficial view of the ultimate results of the
French Revolution at the end of the 14th volume. "-^ZJ/ary, 26th
May, 1 85 1. "In Alison's Principles of Population * * * there
are some singularly superficial remarks upon the poor laws and
population. * * * Amid all this nonsense, Alison has one good
remark. * * * " — Pp. 453, 454. " Alison actually supposes ' that
prices inevitably rise in an old and wealthy community, from the
great quantity of the precious metals in the existing currency which
their opulence enables them, and their numerous mercantile trans-
actions compel them, to keep in circulation, and consequently," &c.
&c. ! ! !" — P. 528, vol. i. Posthumous Works. "The ordinaiy com-
pilers, such as Sir A. Alison." — P. 329, note. The reign of William
the Third is "frequently misunderstood even by those who praise it.
Thus, for instance, a living writer informs us " that William the
Third had " the art of overcoming the ignorant impatience of taxa-
tion which is the invariable characteristic of free communities." —
P. 368, note. Talking of the reign of Charles the First : " Sir A.
Alison notices in his History (vol. iv. p. 213), ' how widely the
spirit of discontent was diffused ' in 1796 ; and the only wonder is,
that the people were able to keep it in bounds. That, however,
is a question which writers of his stamp never consider." — /*. 456,
note. "The common opinion, put forth m Alison's History of
Europe.^'' — P. 483 note, History of Civilization^ vol. i.
The writer in the Atlantic, however, adds that he has been unable
to confirm Buckle's anecdote.
Hetuy Thomas Buckle. 175
from the Talmud and the Bible— he made a very
pretty compliment to his host, introduced as adroitly
as from the lips of a professed courtier, but evidently
spoken on the moment. It was something in this
way : Hekekayan and Buckle were in argument,
and Buckle said, "Ah, you mistake a necessary
condition for the cause." " What is cause but
necessary condition.'" asked Hekekayan. "Very
different : two men can't fight a duel without
meeting ; but every two men who meet don't fight
a duel." " But they couldn't fight a duel without
meeting," persisted Hekekayan. "Yes," rejoined
Buckle ; " but the meeting isn't the cause of the
duel. Why, there could not be a dinner-party
unless the company met ; but our meeting here
to-day isn't the cause of the dinner : the cause of
the dinner is the kindness of our host." " Or
rather of the landlord," said N. " Oh no ! of the
American government," said C. " Ah," said Buckle,
" those things arc not cause : the cause of our good
dinner, I maintain, is only the charming hospitality
of the Consul-Gcneral."
The next day Buckle again dined with IMr.
Thayer, when he sat next to the writer in the
Atlantic, asked about American books, and told
him his opinion of those he had read. He said
176 Tfie Life and iVritings of
that Ouincy's History of Harvard University was
the latest book on America he had received before
leaving England. He preferred Kent's exposition
of the United States Constitution to Story's,
although this also he had consulted and used.
He had not seen Mr. Adams's complete edition of
the works of his grandfather, nor Parton's Life of
Jackson, both of which he was recommended to
read, particularly the chapters in the former in
which are traced the steps in the progress of
making the American Constitutions. He said he
would not visit America till the domestic troubles
were composed, for he desired to see the practical
working of the American institutions in their
normal state, not confused and disturbed by the
excitements of war. He would go first to Boston
and New York, the intellectual and commercial
heads, as he said, of the Republic ; and to
Washington, the political capital. He would
then like to pass from the Northern into the
Southern States, but asked if he could travel
safely in the latter, in view of his extreme opinions
in detestation of slavery. From the Southern
States he said he would wish to pass into
Mexico, thence into Peru and to Chili ; then to
cross the Pacific Ocean to Japan, to China, to
Henry 7 /lo/nas Buckie. 177
India, and so back by the overland route to
England. This magnificent scheme he had
seriously resolved upon, and proposed to devote
to it two or three years. He undertook it partly
for information, and partly for relaxation of his
mental faculties, which he had injured by over-
work, and which imperatively demanded repose,
lie asked many questions with regard to matters
of detail : whether he would find conveyance by
steamers in the Pacific, and of what sort would be
the accommodation in them, and in sailing-vessels.
He asked at what season he had best arrive in the
United States, and whether he had better land
at New York or at Boston. Boston, he said, he
regarded as " the intellectual head of the country,
and New York, you know, for trade." His friend
answered these questions to the best of his ability,
and told him that he must not omit seeing the
western country, and some of the new cities, like
Chicago. Buckle asked him if he knew " a Mrs.
Child," who had written him a letter, and sent him
her book about the history of religion. He had
been pleased with the letter and the book.
The conversation became general, and Mr. B ,
of New York, told a story of an old Congressional
debate, in which John Randolph derisively com-
VOL. II. N
I 78 The Life and Writings of
pared Edward Everett to Richelieu. Buckle at
once said he should regard it as a compliment of
the very highest kind to be compared to Richelieu.
On being asked if he had read Dumas' novels^ he
said he had not, although he had felt an inclination
to do so. He asked one or two questions about
them, and gave a rapid generalization of the history
of France at that time.
Mr. Thayer showed him the little stock of books
he happened to have with him in Cairo. Mr. Buckle
looked them over with interest, expressing his
opinions upon them. One of them, Mr. Bayle
St. John's little book on the Turkish question, he
borrowed, although he said that he denied himself
all reading on this journey, undertaken for mental
rest, and had brought no books with him. They
got upon the inevitable question of international
copyright, which he discussed in a spirit of remark-
able candour. His own experience was this :
Messrs. Appleton reprinted his first volume with-
out compensation, asking him to furnish materials
for a prefatory memoir^ of which request he took
no notice ; ^^ afterwards, when the second volume
was published, they sent him something — I believe
fifty pounds. Buckle's American friend pointed
-» See above, the letter to Mr. Capel, p. 153 of Vol. I.
I fcnry Thomas Buckle. i 79
out a distinction between copyright for the British
author, and monopoly for the British publisher.
He added, that the American people and their
representatives in Congress, would not have the
least objection to paying a trifling addition to the
cost of books, which would make, upon the im-
mense editions sold of the popular books, a hand-
some compensation to the foreign authors, but that
they have very decided objections to the English
system of enormously high prices for books. He
instanced several books, which could be bought in
the United States for a quarter or half a dollar,
while in England they cannot be purchased for less
than a guinea and a half — that is, for seven or eight
dollars, although the author gains very little by
these high prices, which, indeed, would be absolutely
prohibitory of the circulation of the books in the
United States. And since the great literary mar-
ket of the United States has been created at the
public expense, by the maintenance of the system
of universal education, it is, perhaps, not unreason-
able that the American legislators should insist
upon preserving, by the competition among pub-
lishers, the advantages of low prices of books in
pursuance of a policy which looks to a wide circu-
lation. In Great Britain the publishers follow a
N 2
I So TJie Life and IVritmgs of
different policy, and insist upon selling books at high
prices to a comparatively small circle of readers.
Mr. Buckle was kind enough to listen attentively
to this sort of reasoning, and admitted that it was
entitled to some degree of weight. Indeed, he
said that he had earnestly wished to bring out a
cheap edition of his own book in England, omitting
the notes and references, for the use of the working
classes, of whose appreciation he had received
many gratifying proofs ; ^^ he had made his ar-
rangements for this purpose, but was prevented
from carrying them out by the opposition of his
publishers, who objected that such an edition
would injure their interest in the more costly edi-
tion. But Mr. Buckle freely declared that he
would, in his circumstances, rather forego the
profit on the sale of his book than restrict its cir-
culation. This conversation led to a description of
the reading public in America, of the intelligence
and independence of our working people, of their
habits of life and of thought, about which Buckle
manifested great interest, asking many intelligent
questions.
^8 Buckle's Diary has the following entry, i8th November, 1862 :
"A visit from Mr. Holyoake, whom I now saw for the first time,
and who wishes me to publish an edition of my History on common
paper for six shillings, leaving out the notes."
Ifenry Thomas Ihickle. 1 8 i
On February 13th there was a religious celebra-
tion, including an illumination, in the mosk of
the citadel, to see which Mr. Thayer had invited
Mr. Buckle, as well as the two lads, his travelling
companions. But at the last moment the advice
was strongly given on all sides not to go, lest some
bigoted Mussulmans should take offence, and there
might be a disturbance. Not long before, a party
of Englishmen had behaved very badly on a similar
occasion, from which resulted a disturbed state of
feeling. It, of course, could not be pleasant to
people of any religious belief to have their cere-
monies made a spectacle for curiosity ; and al-
though the mudir promised ample protection, the
plan was given up, and, the company being ga-
thered, they had a pleasant evening together. The
presence of the ladies of Mr. B 's party gave
the opportunity to see Mr. Buckle again under the
inspiration of ladies' society, which he especially
enjoys, and in the lighter conversation suited to
which he shines with not less distinction than when
conversing upon abstruse topics.
In the course of the evening, in the midst of
conversation, in which he was taking an animated
part, Mr. Buckle exhibited symptoms of faintness.
Fresh air was at once admitted into the room,
1 82 The Life and Writings of
which was full of cigar smoke ; water and more
powerful restoratives were brought, but these he
declined. After a few minutes' repose upon the
divan, he declared that he was perfectly recovered,
and half an hour afterwards took his leave with
the boys.
On the 15th Februaiy, Buckle had arranged to
visit the so-called Petrified Forest, behind the
Mokuttum range, in company with Mr. Thayer
and several American and English travellers.
Mr. Buckle, who was always trying fatigue-saving
contrivances for his desert journey, thought this a
good opportunity for trying a camel with the
mazetta, a sort of box in which the hareem gene-
rally travel, something like a palanquin without
the poles, carried on the back of one camel.
The writer in the Atlantic MoiitJily says, " On
looking down from the balcony at the transporta-
tion train marshalled for the occasion, amid the
admiring gaze of all the idlers of Cairo, I was at
first a little chagrined to find, as the final result of
the various arrangements, that, besides the camels,
the mazetta, the carriage and four, and the proud-
stepping horse, there appeared but one donkey —
that selected for me. But I was, in truth, very
well off To begin with, it was not thought prii-
Henry Thomas Buckle. 1 8
J
dent that Mr. Buckle should use the inazctta until
the procession had got beyond the narrow streets
of Cairo, lest the camel bearing it should take
fright, and knock the whole thing to pieces against
the wall of a house. Accordingly, he and his
charges took donkeys, and I rode off with them at
the head of the column. By-and-by Mr. Buckle
changed to the conveyance originally proposed, but
a very short experiment (literally, I e.xpect) sick-
ened him of the mazetta, whose motion is precisely
that of a ship in a storm, and he sent back to the
town for donkeys. At the next halt the ladies
took him into their carriage, where he found
himself, as he said, ' in clover.'
" It pretty soon appeared," he continues, " that
the camel which T. was riding was young and
frisky ; the animal was accordingly pronounced
unsafe, and T. changed to a donkey, which had
fortunately been brought along for a reserve. The
Hon. W. S 's camel, from the saddle becoming
unfastened, pitched rider and saddle to the ground —
a fall of five or six feet ; fortunately, no harm was
done, and he bravely mounted again. The saddle
upon the camel which the Rev. Mr, S rode
split in two, and the seat must have been a torture ;
but he bore it like a martyr, never flinching. But
1 84 The Life and Writings of
camel stock had so far depreciated that I was able
to try as much as I liked of camel-riding now and
then, at the same time obliging a friend by the use
of my donkey meanwhile. * * *
" The journey to the forest, about ten miles, was
safely accomplished. We found the petrifactions
duly wonderful. An excellent luncheon was laid
out, after which we had an hour and a half of very
entertaining conversation, in which Mr. Buckle and
the Rev. Mr. S held the leading parts ; all
around us as desolate and silent as one could ima-
gine. It was interesting to observe the manner in
which Buckle estimated eminent names, grouping
them in some instances in threes — a favourite con-
ceit with him. John Stuart Mill, of all living men,
he considered as possessing the greatest mind in
the world. Aristotle, Newton, and Shakespeare
are the greatest the world has produced in past
times. Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare are the
only three great poets. Johnson, Gibbon, and
Parr are the three writers who have done the
greatest harm to the English language. For Hallam
he had a strong admiration. He spoke of Sydney
Smith as the greatest English wit, and of Selwyn
as next to him, and described Macaulay's memory
as unequalled in conversation." "^^
=^7 Buckle met Macnulay at dinner, 19th June, 1852, at Lord
Ihni'y Jlionuis JUicklc. 185
However, at last everything was ready, and one
of the boys writes as follows : — " \Vc are expecting
the Antiquities of the J civs either to-day or to-
morrow, and we are going to start for Suez on
Sunday. The camels are packed, and are going to
start to-day. Mr. B. has allowed another gentle-
man to join our party, a Mr. Glennie. We have
seen some of our tent furniture. We have got iron
bedsteads, that fold up and put into a bag, like my
fishing-rod, only thicker ; we have got four camp-
stools, and little Bucky is going to have an iron
chair with a back to it, that folds up, and a camp-
stool to put his legs on. We have got prepared
milk in tin cases, so that we shall not have to go
without milk as so many people do ; and we have
got preserved tongue in tin cases, because we have
nearly eaten all yours ; and boiled beef, and I don't
know what all ; so we won't starve. Other people
only eat mutton, which is the only meat you can
get from the Bedouins. I have read the Hebrew
Covniiowwealth. Part of it is dry, and part interest-
ing ; it gives a history of the Jews from the time of
Moses, B.C. 1500, to the great Jewish war with the
Romans, and the taking of Jerusalem by Titus,
Hatherley's house, ami records two anecdotes related by Macaulay.
Buckle's remark on Lord Macaulay 's power of memory is thoroughly
borne out by the admirable biography of him written by his nephew.
1 86 The Life and Writings of
A.D. 71. I am now going to begin the subsequent
history of the Jews, which is in the same volume
with the Hcbrezv Commonwealth. I think Josephus
will be very interesting, but I have not begun it
yet ; has nearly finished it : but I don't think
I shall be able to read much in the desert, par-
ticularly such an immense book as Josephus.'-^
We are very busy to-day packing up. Mr. B.
is packing now, and directly I have finished this
letter I am going to pack — so we won't be able to
read much to-day. Mr. B. has put a Httle blistering-
plaster on my forehead for his own amusement,
and won't let me take it off again. I have got a
very small mummied crocodile ; it is such a darling
little thing that I know you won't mind it."
And the other boy writes : — " Mr. Buckle still often
puts on the ' rough brown coat ' that you mentioned
in your letter, and I mended the sleeves for him,
because he was always putting his arms through
the linings. * * * It is raining to-day, the second
time since we have been in Egypt. We are very
comfortable and jolly, and Mr, Buckle is pack-
ing up antiquity after antiquity every day. I
have read Stanley, and I like it very much ; and
now I am reading Josephus, and I like it better."
28 Traill's.
Jlenry Thomas B tickle. 187
On Monday, 3rd March, a start was made, but
through the fault of Hassan, the dragoman, the
party just missed their train, and had to go to the ■
Hotel dcs Ambassadeurs. The next day they
started for Suez at 12.30, where they found at the
hotel "a Mr. Glennic,"as Buckle has entered in his
diary, "who has agreed to join us." This gentle-
man had called on Mr. Buckle at Boulak on the
19th February, when, as he writes:"' — "He was
again kind enough to ask me to join him on his
further journey, and spoke so enthusiastically of the ,
historical interest of the desert life, that I said I
should give him an answer next day. Next day
our dragoman's contract was signed at the Con-
sulate."
Mr. Longmore, who also met Mr. Buckle here,
says :— " After the table d'hote of that day at the
Peninsular and Oriental Hotel, we had a long dis-
cussion on the subject of the different races of man
being originally distinct, or all derived from one
stock. Buckle seemed to lean strongly on the
latter view of the question ; and when the opposite
was rather too strongly maintained by a gentleman
present, I could not but admire the able and
effective manner in which Mr. Buckle in a few pithy
-" Frasers Magazine, p. 174, for Auyusl, 1863.
1 88 The Life and Writings of
sentences closed a discussion likely to become dis-
agreeable." ^'
The next day, 5th March, the party, which now
included Mr. Glennie, crossed over by boat from
Suez to the opposite shore. The water was beauti-
fully clear, and the rocky bottom visible in every
detail ; but towards the coast it shoals so much
that the shore has to be gained on men's backs.
At the landing, camels were waiting, and the first
desert journey was a camel-ride of two miles to the
encampment at 'Ain Musa. Here they found
another party encamped, who had just returned
from a visit to Sinai. "We here met," says the
Rev; St. John Tyrwhitt, "for the first and last
time with Buckle, the historian of civilization.
Nothing can have been more delightful than his
conversation for the half-hour I passed in his com-
pany, and he was full of life, and energy of mind.
But his whole frame seemed slight, and worn to a
degree ; and I thought he was taking mistaken pre-
cautions against heat, which would try his strength
severely." ^' Mr. Glennie also, as he says, hinted to
Buckle once or twice that his costume was too
•'"' Athetmum,-^. 1 15, 25th January, 1873.
31 In Vacation Tourists and Notes of Travel, in 1862-3. Edited
by Fr. Gallon, p. 356. London and Cambridge. 1864.
Ileiiyy TJionias Buckle. 189
warm ; but l^ucklc pointed out that the Arab
chiefs all wore voluminous clothing, and that pro-
tection from heat is as much assured by flannel as
protection from cold;^- The result of neglect of this
precaution is thus told in Mr. Tyrwhitt's own
words : — " Little thought we, on the Red Sea level,
of the cold of the granite glens of Sinai ;" and they
suffered " from dysentery, the consequence of heat
and cold, and change of living, and long marches.""
And Buckle points out, in his letter from Jerusalem,
that those who differed from him, "strong and
vigorous young men as they were, they fared
differently- -being constantly unwell, and always
ascribing their complaints to the wrong cause." "
Buckle, though described by Mr. Tyrwhitt as
"worn to a degree," was at this time in better
health than he had been for several years. His
dress was the same as he had worn in Egypt, with
the exception that he substituted flannel for his
32 Fraser's Magazine, p. 175, for August, 1S63.
33 VacaHon Tourists, pp. 331, 342.
3'' Had Mr. Glennie looked in Murray he would have seen that
Mr. Porter says : " It is a great mistake to wear linen, or any other
thin material. Woollen cloth is a non-conductor, and when we are
protected by it the sun's rays fall harmless. * * * Many throw over
the whole a white Arab bumiis of very thin material, and this
affords additional protection against both heat and dust." — Handbook
to Syria and Paleslini; vol. i. p. .\lv. 1S68.
T 90 The Life and WiHtings of
white shirts. These, having been sent out to him
from England, were not a very good fit ; and his
clothing was altogether old-fashioned, and not new,
though it was good ; as an American writer
observes, " In this respect affording a not disagree-
able contrast to the studied jauntiness which
Englishmen are apt to affect in their travelling
gear." 3*
As for the looks of his dress, Buckle did not
care one straw. Indeed, he rather preferred doing
things in a different way to what was customary.
"The immense mass of mankind," he says, "are,
in regard to their usages, in a state of social
slavery ; each man being bound under heavy
penalties to conform to the standard of life common
to his own class. * * * Men, not cowards in other
respects, and of a fair share of moral courage, are
afraid to rebel against this grievous and exacting
tyranny. The consequences of this are injurious,
not only to those who desire to be freed from the
thraldom, but also to those who do not desire to
be freed ; that is, to the whole of society." Hence,
3' Atlantic Monthly, p. 491, April, 1863. Mr. Glennie adds to
his description of Buckle's dress (which is not correct) the words :
"A wide-awake * * * shaded his unshaven face." — Frascr's
Magazine, p. 175, August, 1863. What he is endeavouring to say
is, that Buckle wore a beard.
Hairy Thomas Buckle. 191
he continues, a sufficient number of experiments in
the art of life are not made, and knowledge is
retarded.^® Hence his unbounded contempt for
those who sneer at a man because he does things
in a way different from what they have been
accustomed to, without ever deigning to inquire
into the merits of the case, and sometimes even
despite the evident superiority of the new over the
old method. He himself refused to fire salutes on
the Nile, or carry a flag in the desert, merely
' because others did,' when he saw no use in it.
On one occasion, when one of the boys put a bottle
in the middle of the table, and Mr. Glennie wished
to have it at the corner, he said, " No, leave it there.
I hate to see things always done in the same
way."
The next day Buckle tried his dromedary ; but
the following he only rode for little over an hour
on that disagreeable animal, the motion of which
he describes as "insufferable," and thenceforth
travelled on his Cairene donkey which he had
provided for the emergency.^'
3« Essay on Mill. Posthumous Works, pp. 47, 48, vol. L
2' Mr. Glennie erroneously stales that Buckle never again tried
camel-riding after that short ride from 'Ain Milsa ; and says that
it was owing to his "stiffness " that the motion was so disagreeable.
Filgrim Mtmories, p. 69. The fact is, that the peculiarity of the
192 . The Life and Writings of
The route was by Wady Ghurundel and Wady
et-Taiyibeh, where the sea-shore is reached ; and
here Buckle and the boys wandered for an hour
before dinner, collecting the shells which lay strewn
in abundance along the sandy shore. The usual
way in which the day was passed — like the whole
travelling equipage, entirely the arrangement of
Buckle — was to get up at six, breakfast while the
tents were being struck, start a little before eight,
and generally before the baggage camels were
ready ; lunch generally about twelve, while still on
the march, on a few figs and biscuits ; then rest for
about three hours during the hottest part of the
day wherever there was natural shade — or, if there
were none, a part of a tent was pitched. Here
Buckle smoked, and talked to Mr. Glennie for a
time, and then slept ; while the baggage camels
had time to come up, and get a start sufficient to
allow of the camp and dinner being nearly pre-
camel's gait makes it necessary to swing backwards and forwards
with every step, and this made Buckle giddy. He also tries to
draw a ludicrous picture of Buckle mounting his donkey: "one
man helping him up, another on the other side holding the saddle
straight, and one holding the animal in case of fright. " Ibid. p. 70.
Mr. Glennie does not add that this, apart from exaggerations, is
the way that he himself, and every one else in the East, mounts.
One man holds the stirrup with one hand, and the donkey with the
other, or it would certainly start off; while if there is a second man
near, or the rider be a man of consequence, he is always Iielped uj).
Henry Thomas Buckle. 193
pared when he again came up to them, about six
o'clock. Buckle, who always now rode his Cairene
donkey, was independent of attending Arabs or
camel-leaders. Part of the time he rode by Mr.
Glennie, and talked to him ; and for an hour to
an hour and a half he walked, generally with the
boys. After dinner, which, like all the other meals,
was in the open air, he would smoke and resume
his talk. Then to bed about nine, where he lit
a cigar, and read Jahn's Hebrew Commonwealth,
Murray, Josephus, or the Bible, for about an hour
before he went to sleep.
The seventh day of travelling saw the party up
the Nukb Badereh, or pass of the Sword's Point,
and into Wady Magharah, or the Valley of the
Cave, so called from the mines, which, together
with many dwelling-places, tanks, forts, and in-
scriptions, mark the ancient Egyptian copper-mines.
At that time a Major Macdonald was living there,
who, as Buckle says in his diary, "received us,
though strangers to him, with great kindness,
persuaded us to stay all day with him, and gave
us some turquoises from the mines which he had
discovered." He invited the party up to his rough
dwelling, and regaled them on hot Arab tortilla — or
flat cakes of dough baked on a plate of iron — ibex
VOL. II. O
194 "^^^^ i^//^ and Writings of
cutlets, and other novelties. He then showed them
the ancient mines, and gave them some ancient
flint arrow-heads, a few small turquoises, and many
of another kind which turned green after a short
time, or almost white. These latter had brought
the major into great trouble at one time, for, in his
ignorance, he had sent both kinds to the European
markets, and thereby brought the mines into
discredit. He had first discovered them while
wandering over the hills, seventeen years before, and
then came and settled, where he lived for sixteen
years, seeing nobody but Arabs, and yet had not
learned the language ! This Buckle spoke of
afterwards with some contempt. At that time he
had a nephew staying with him, who had learned
to make himself understood in a few months. The
major spoke of the ancient reservoirs, and ex-
plained how easily the desert might be made
productive by simply damming up some of the
torrent-beds, so as to form reservoirs. For the
desert is fertile wherever irrigated ; and the rainfall,
though it only lasts about a couple of days, is
something tremendous. When asked what he
would do if strangers came to work the mines, he
said that he and the Tawarah Arabs would fight
them. His system was to find the mining tools,
Henry Thomas Buckle. 195
and pay his Arabs a percentage on what they
found. Each worked for himself; and whoever
made a lucky discovery of a good vein tried to
keep it secret, though generally without success, as
he was soon tracked by his fellows. The major
also talked of the terrible Arab vendetta, and
pointed out a man whose life was in hourly danger.
This Arab was a truculent-looking ruffian, armed
with a heavy straight sword, and a gun some
twelve feet long slung across his shoulder, who had
quarrelled with his nephew about a case of candles
which had been washed ashore. The nephew
wounded his uncle, upon which the uncle slew his
nephew, and was now being hunted by his nearest
relatives.
Major Macdonald extended his hospitality in the
kindest way to all comers ; and not long after
Buckle's arrival, another caravan appeared, with
whom he was destined to travel during the rest of
the desert journey. They also were invited to
dinner, where Buckle was, as usual, the soul of the
party.
The following day was a " very fatiguing "
journey of twelve hours, through Wady IMukatteb,
to the oasis and ruined Christian village of Wady
Feiran. Dinner was late, and Buckle exhausted ; but
O 2
196 TJie Life and Writings of
he got up as early as usual the next day to
examine the ruined houses and church. That
day's journey was only six hours' duration ; but
according to Mr. Glennie, he had a long talk with
him all day ; and the following day he was so tired
that he could not talk at all, though he walked
from the encampment to the convent of Sinai, and
back again, before dinner.
The party were admitted into the convent after
they had presented the usual letter of introduction,
during the perusal of which Buckle expressed very
unflattering remarks on asceticism generally, and
the monks in particular.^^ He did not like the look
of the guest-rooms, and preferred to remain in his
tent, the double roof of which proved useful that
night in keeping out a heavy fall of rain. Gebel
Musa, the Sinai of the monks and Arabs, was
ascended the next day, one third of the way by a
road practicable by camels, and the remaining twC-
thirds on foot over loose stones. On the summit
is a little chapel and a mosk — the latter hung all
over with votive rags, the former beplastered with
dirty prints. Here they rested a couple of hours,
had lunch, and a drink from the cool and refresh-
ing spring called Moses' Well, which Buckle pro-
38 Glennie, Pilgrim Memories, p. 137.
Henry Thomas Buckle. 197
nounced to be the best water he had tasted since
he left England. Then they descended to the
chapel of Elijah and Aaron, where the very cave
is shown in which Elijah lay hidden. In the even-
ing Buckle and the other travellers, forming in all
four parties, fired off their revolvers to try them ;
but Buckle had to seek advice from Mr. Gray — a
gentleman travelling with another party, to whom
he took a great fancy — how to load his weapon.
The next day was spent in seeing the convent, its
church, pictures, mosk, and library, and also in
writing home : —
"As I know how anxious you must be," he says,
" to have the latest possible news of the desert tra-
vellers, I have arranged to send a Bedouin express
on a fleet dromedary this evening to Suez. He
will reach Suez in about three days with this letter.
" We are all quite well — very tired every even-
ing, but waking up quite fresh and vigorous every
morning. Our average day's journey is seven
hours of actual riding, and we rest about three
hours during the day. I Jiope that we shall succeed
in getting to Akaba, then to Petra, and from Petra
through Hebron to Jerusalem.
" But as there are rumours at Sinai of war among
the tribes, I have sent a Bedouin to Akaba to learn
198 The Life and IVritijigs of
the actual state of things before I venture to start ;
and I shall take a similar precaution at Akaba in
regard to Petra, An American party leave here
to-morrow, without taking any steps to procure
information, and much wish us to go with them.
But I do not like to run the risk, as with, I believe,
one exception, no one has been to Petra during
the last five years. I have sent for the head sheik,
Hussein, and if he will accompany us with an
escort, we will go — if not, not. So, as the Irish-
man said, ' Be aisy, now.'
" I am too tired to write more. The excitement
and exquisite interest of the life we are leading are
indescribable, but unfit me for every other exertion.
" Our encampment here is 5500 feet above the
level of the sea — the mid-day sun intensely hot, but
the mornings bitterly cold."
This was written on the 17th March, a day of rest
before resuming the journey; but though unwilling
to write, Buckle was in excellent spirits, for, in a
letter written home at the same time, one of the
boys says, " You must excuse mistakes, because
Mr. B will sing ri-too-rall-loo-rall-loo." Indeed
it was not until the latter part of the journey, when
his last illness was already upon him, that his high
spirits and constant flow of fun ever did fail.
Henry Ihomas lUicklc. 199
The next day — and before, of course, the mes-
senger had returned from Akaba — a late start was
made, because, having fresh camels, the burdens
had to be redistributed. The route lay for the
most part along the seashore. It was here, as
Buckle looked across the deep blue sea of Akaba
to the many-tinted mountains of the opposite
shore, that he again burst out with the conviction,
already expressed in Egypt, that the beauty of
colour was superior to form ; and felt, what before
he had little more than reasoned, how great was the
stimulous of natural beauty to the imagination.
With the aid of the boys he collected many shells,
and specimens of red and white coral ; and, as an
instance of his method of education, I may here men-
tion, that the boys one day at dinner told him how
they had been amusing themselves by knocking off
the tails of lizards, to see how these jumped, while
the lizards ran away as if nothing had happened.
Mr. Glennie remarked that it was v^ery cruel, and
ought to be put a stop to ; but Buckle quietly said,
that it was the nature of boys to be cruel, and that
they would know better when they grew older.
The consequence was that they, who had resented
Mr. Glennie's remarks, and would probably not
have attended to an order, were ashamed of what
200 The Life and Writings of
they had done, and did so no more. The only
adventure on the march, which lasted five days,
was one that Mr. Glennie relates, that Buckle only
just escaped the spring of a cobra, which had been
disturbed by his donkey, and, after his fashion, gave
the incident a ridiculous turn by jokingly inveighing
against the blindness of fate, through which the
career of a great philosopher might have been cut
short by the merest accident or the most contempt-
ible agent.^^
On the sixth day there was a halt for the return
of the messenger, and the next saw them encamped
amid the palm-groves of Akaba, hard by the old
square castle, and in company with three other
parties, two American and one English.
From Tuesday to Saturday the tents remained
pitched, while the principals of each party were
negotiating with Sheik Mohammed for protection
and an escort to Petra. For some time the 'Alawin
had been waging war with the Fellahin of that
place, and consequently for the last five years the
whole neighbourhood had been in so unsettled a
state that no travellers could venture into it. The
^^ Glennie, Pilgrim Memories, p. 174. Mr. Glennie, wnth sur-
prising naiveti, relates this as having been said in sober earnest.
But then Mr. Glennie was in tlie habit of taking jokes in this way.
Ilt'fuy Thomas Buckle. 201
last party had been attacked, one person killed, and
another died of fright. Now, however, the 'Alawin
had to a certain extent gained the mastery, and
the Fellahin were a kind of powerful feudatories —
entitled to a share of the backsheesh indeed, but
unable to oppose the entry of travellers who
enjoyed the protection of the powerful Sheik of
the 'Allawin.
There was plenty of leisure for conversation while
the negotiations were going on, and Buckle parti-
cularly talked to Mr. Gray, who writes as follows : —
" Notwithstanding Mr. Buckle's anti-Christian
opinions, one would have thought, that in the
desert at least our fellow-travellers would have
availed themselves of the opportunity afforded
them of studying such a man as Mr. Buckle. Yet
all, with the exception of Mr. Glennie, himself
a freethinker, and myself, kept out of his way.
During many years' wanderings throughout the
world, I have never met any one, whose general
knowledge or conversational power could be com-
pared for a moment with that of Buckle ; whether
in botanizing up Sinai, or geologizing at Petra, in
astronomy, medicine, chemistry, theology, or lan-
guages, everything and every subject appeared to
me handled as if by a professional. And yet, how-
202 The Life and Wiitmgs of
ever much one differed from him, his kindly mode
of reasoning with me against what he beheved to
be erroneous views was always so pleasant and
fascinating that I could not resist returning again
and again to his arguments.
" Singularly enough there were three clergymen
in the combined parties — a Church of England, a
German Lutheran, and an American Baptist ; and
I remember, because it struck me very forcibly, that
one day when the German was defending some
point of religious doctrine. Buckle pointed out
that he had omitted one or two stronger arguments
in his favour, which he proceeded to give. It was
quite evident to me that few priests or parsons
existed who were qualified to defend their respec-
tive creeds better than was Mr. Buckle himself any
one of them. I took an early opportunity of letting
Mr. Buckle know that, both as a Scotchman and a
Catholic, I had read with much interest his account
of Presbyterianism, adding, that as Catholics were
accustomed to stripes, his castigation of Catholicism
also was only one of many wounds inflicted upon
us ; whereas even royalty coquetted with the former
in Scotland, and Presbyterians were astounded
at his presuming to lecture them for their mis-
doings. Mr. Buckle said that it was satisfactory
Henry Thovias Buckle. 203
to him to know that, among other leading Scotch-
men, the editor of the Scotsman, the late Mr.
Russell, had welcomed his book as a boon to
Scotland. While on the subject of Scotch intole-
rance I remember asking Mr. Buckle whether,
were he living in Scotland, he would expect to be
most repugnant to the Presbyterians as a Deist or
a Catholic .-' He replied at once that he had no
doubt he would be least objectionable to them as
a Deist. My asking him one day what in his opi-
nion were the strong and what the weak points of
Catholicism and of Protestantism, led up to the fol-
lowing, to me, memorable remarks : — ' I understand
that the Catholic Church is making great progress
in America ; but it must do so, for what has it to
contend against there } Only Protestantism, which
is inconsistency itself I, too, was brought up a
Protestant,' he continued, 'and was taught to
regard my private judgment as my birthright, of
which no one could rob me. But when, in making
use of my private judgment, I was led to reject
Christianity, an outcry was at once raised against
me for exercising this very undoubted right.' Then
turning towards me, he said : ' Your church at
least is consistent, for it does not profess to allow
the right of private judgment. But then it starts
204 The Life and Writiytgs of
from false premises, for it assumes that Christ was
the Son of God. Prove to me that Christ was the
Son of God, and I too at once become a Catholic."*"
" Among his miscellaneous remarks I remember
that, in a conversation on articles in the Times and
other leading English papers, he said it was very-
easy for a man to sit behind his desk and write an
article ; but he found from experience that these
writers seldom cared to discuss verbally the subject
of their articles. When speaking of various authors,
he occasionally added that a few years hence their
works would be forgotten. A book that would
not descend to posterity was evidently one for
which he had but scant respect. With mighty
captains he had no sympathy. Napoleon, in his
eyes, was simply a curse to civilization. He did
not believe in humane generals, and was much
interested in some anecdotes I told him of what I
had seen while serving as a volunteer in the Indian
Mutiny. On the subject of the Suez Canal, he
believed that the canal would be made in spite of
British opposition, and insisted that Palmerston
••'' I give this in Mr. Gray's words, and he adds : " These words
made so great an impression upon me at the time that I took the
first opportunity of repeating them to Mr. Glennie, who acquiesced
perfectly in Buckle's avowal." But it seems to me that the last
word ought to be Christian, as it is difficult to understand how all
the doctrines of Catholicism could be deduced from this.
Hetiry Thomas Buckle. 205
had asked Stephenson to put all the difficulties in
the strongest light, in order to prejudice English
public opinion."^'
After several tedious interviews with the sheiks,
who at first agreed, then threw difficulties in the
v/ay, and finally agreed again, a start was made on
March 30th, with a new escort of wild 'Alawin in
place of the gentle Tawarah Arabs, accompanied
by the great sheik himself on the first day's journey,
and then by his uncle. The party was now a
large and powerful caravan, consisting, with the
servants and escort, of 1 10 well-armed men. To
prevent undue straggling, the midday rest was
curtailed to one hour. On the first day a halt
was called, as more difficulties were advanced by
the tiresome chiefs. They professed to have dis-
covered some new danger, which it would be
necessary to meet by more backsheesh. " I gave
it as my opinion," says Mr. Gray, that the fellows,
knowing how anxious we were to reach Petra, were
simply endeavouring to extort money from us
under false pretences. Mr. Buckle, anti-Christian
though he was in belief, chid me for want of charity.
I enjoyed the reproof, but felt all the same that
however learned a man might be in Europe, it was
*' From notes kindly communicated to mc liy Mr. Alexander
Hill Gray, of East Ferry, Dunkeld, N.B.
2o6 The Life and Wj'i tings of
quite possible he might be easily fooled in Asia ;
and I was therefore very glad, when night came on,
to rouse Mr. Buckle with the latest news after he
had retired to rest. The news was simply this :
Abd-el-atee, the leading dragoman of the united
party,^^ had suggested to the sheik that he should
demand more money all round ; which money he
and the sheik were to divide between them. My
dragoman had no objection to the arrangement,
provided that he obtained his share of what his
masters paid. To this proposal Abd-el-Atee
would not consent, and Hassan, turning traitor,
first came to tell me that he had overheard my
conversation with Mr. Buckle, and assured me
that my suspicions were correct. Mr. Buckle
never lectured me again upon want of charity."
Buckle's worthy cook, however, who was no
Rustam, was so frightened by stories of the
ferocious Fellahin, and particularly of his last
■•^ Still a well-known man at Cairo. What did his party say
of Buckle before him ? Mr. Warner, whom he afterwards served,
says he referred to Buckle as follows : " You no think the Lord he
take care for his own ? * * * W'hen the kin' of Abyssinia, who
not believe, what you call infidel, like that Englishman, yes, Mr.
Buckle ; I see him in Sinai and Petra^very wise man, know a
great deal, very nice gentleman, I like him very much, but I think
he not believe." — Mummies and Moslems. London, 1S76. Pp.
318—319.
Henry Tliomas Buckle. 207
predecessor at Petra, five years since, who had
been shot, that he swore the triple oath of divorce
nothing should induce him to stir a step forward.
The dragoman came in much perplexity to tell
Buckle of this ; for the triple oath is irrevocable,*
and the man who divorces his wife in this way
may not marry her again till some one else has
married and divorced her." Buckle called the man
before him, and, pointing out that he was bound
by his contract, gave him the choice whether he
would go on, or return to a consular prison. The
cook became a bachelor.
In the course of the next day, and after much
talk, an agreement was arrived at, and the party
began their March again April 4th. On the way,
Mount Hor was ascended. Buckle got up in an
hour and a half, tired and hot ; and rubbing his
bald head, exclaimed, " No wonder poor old Aaron
died when they dragged him up here!" Even the
clericals laughed at this unholy remark. But the
view from the summit over the neighbouring
43 Very ugly men are chosen for this purpose by repentant
husbands. They sometimes, however, refuse to divorce the woman,
for her former husband to re-marry her ; and they cannot be com-
pelled. Compare the story of 'Ala ed-Deen Abu-sh-Shamat.
Lane, 1840, vol. ii. p. 274 ; and Ibid., Modern Egyptians, 1842,
vol. i. p. 262, et seq.
2o8 The Life and Writings of
peaks was worth all the fatigue, and reminded
one — in its vast expanse, and the absence of all
vegetation but a little straggling grass or insig-
nificant bush or stunted tree — of a raised map
spread before one's feet. Once at the top, an extra
backsheesh was demanded for permission to see
Aaron's tomb, and refused by the indignant
travellers, who did not care much to see it. The
descent was done in an hour, though Buckle was
forced to draw his revolver on his attendant savages,
who kept pushing him to make him go at what
they considered a suitable rate of speed.
That afternoon the tents were pitched in Petra.
In the evening the whole party had a narrow
escape. There was a quarrel between the sheiks,
as they sat round their camp fire, on the division
of the spoil. The Sheik of the Fellahin drew his
sword, and was on the point of killing the Sheik
of the 'Alawin^ who was unprepared, when the
blow was turned aside by a bystander ; and the
angry Fellahin chief went off in a huff, promising
that as he " had the pigeons in his cage, he would
not let them go ;" and intimating that he would
occupy the heights, and attack the party when
they attempted to leave. However, the next day
Buckle and some of the others began their sight-
Henry Thomas Buckle. 209
seeing by the pass of the Sik, a narrow rocky
passage, the principal, and probably, in ancient
times, only, entrance to Petra. They had hardly
got half-way when the dragoman told them it was
dangerous to go on ; that the sheik had heard the
Fellahin were in ambush ahead, and they must
return at once. Buckle quietly asked who was the
messenger ? and he was pointed out. " Then,"
said he, " I will go back ; but I shall take you
before the sheik, and ask him if your story is true ;
and if it be not, you shall be punished." Upon this
the man began equivocating, saying that he had
not been sent by the sheik, but thought it
extremely likely that the Fellahin might be there,
&c. ; and it became at once clear that he had
invented the story merely to save himself the
trouble of escorting the travellers about the place.
On their return they found poor Achmet, the cook,
the centre of a group of Fellahin, who had found
out his cowardice, and were demanding sugar,
tobacco, and everything they had a fancy to.
They pointed out to him the individual who had
slain the cook of the last party, and chaffed him
unmercifully.
The only time that Buckle was angr\' with
Mr. Gray was at Pctra. " Finding a snake," writes
VOL. II. I'
2 I o TJie Life and Writings of
this gentleman, " I killed it, and brought it to the
door of Mr. Buckle's tent. ' Take that away from
here, if you please,' said he; but I enjoyed his
discomfiture too much to obey him at once. He
was at first angry, but quickly recovered his temper,
merely remarking that the mate of the dead snake
would certainly take up its abode near his tent if
the body was allowed to remain there. When
the Fellahin at Petra were becoming troublesome,"
continues Mr. Gray, " Mr. Buckle remarked, that
' if they came to his tent with guns he would
probably get under the bed ; but if they wished
to discuss matters quietly with him, to prove he
had no right to be there, he would be happy to
offer the chief a chair.'"
One more da^ was passed in Petra ; and then
on the Monday the caravan slowly defiled out on
the road to Hebron, with a somewhat uncomfort-
able feeling that the Sheik of the Fellahin, with his
rude and devoted followers, might be occupying
the heights and prepared to attack. But the
presence of the powerful Bedouin sheik proved a
sufficient safeguard, and they passed out in peace.
The journey to Hebron was uneventful. Every
evening, almost, the escort wasted their powder to
warn off robbers ; and sang, to show their numbers.
" 1 Icnry Thomas Buckle. 2 i i
Nearly every day they managed to get an alarm
of a Bedouin attack ; and once very nearly had a
real affray with the Tiyahah, near Hebron, who
wished the travellers to dismiss the 'Alawin, and
take their camels instead. But the demand was
peaceably resisted ; and in a few hours more they
were safely encamped at Hebron.
The Prince of Wales, who had been making the
tour of Egypt, and thence gone directly by sea to
Palestine, had succeeded in getting into the mosk
which covers the supposed tomb of Abraham
at this place. He had expressed a wish to the
authorities, that since Christians had once been
allowed to enter it, they might in future always be
allowed to do so ; but the wish was expressed in
vain. There was nothing to see, therefore, but the
outside. The Arabs were dismissed, for the desert
was now passed. Horses were substituted for
camels, and all enjoyed a gallop for the first
time, with the exception of Buckle, who, indeed,
for the last two or three days had been riding on
one of the sheik's horses, as his own donkey had
cast a shoe.
From Hebron to Jerusalem is only one day's
travel. Buckle started at nine, taking Bethle-
hem on the wa)', walking two hour.'^, resthig half
r 2
212 The Life and Writings of
an hour, and entering Jerusalem by the Jaffa gate
at half-past four. Here he went to Hauser's Medi-
terranean Hotel, as it was more convenient than
camping outside the town. On the i6th of April,
he writes as follows : —
" We arrived here three days ago, after a most
fatiguing and arduous journey through the whole
desert of Sinai and of Edom. We have traversed
a deeply interesting country, visited by few Euro-
peans — and by none during the last five years, so
dangerous was the latter part of the journey re-
puted to be. But I had taken my measures before
venturing to go beyond Sinai, and gradually feel-
ing my way, secured, as I went on, the protection
of every leading sheik, having studied at Cairo
their relative power and position. Having an
ample stock of provisions, I was prepared at any
moment to fall back, and return if need be to
Egypt. Three other parties, chiefly Americans,
joined us at Sinai, each having their separate esta-
blishment arranged, with their own dragoman, but
all, for greater safety, keeping together till we
reached Hebron. We were in all fifteen persons,
and with our servants and escort we numbered
no armed men. Nothing but a combination of
tribes could hurt us ; and such a combination I
1 Icnry Tho)nas Buckle. 2 i 3
considered to be morally impossible in the face
of the precautions which I sufjjjested, and to which,
after some demur, the other parties agreed. When
I say ' morally impossible," I mean the odds were
so large as not to be worth the consideration of a
prudent man. There were several alarms, and
there was undoubted danger ; but in my deliberate
judgment the danger was not greater than would
be encountered in a rough sea with a good vessel
and a skilful captain. Some of our fellow-travellers
were in great fear two or three times, and assured
me that they had no sleep on those occasions.
For my own part, I never was kept awake ten
minutes. The boys behaved exceedingly well.**
* * * I told them always to keep close to me
in the caravan ; they always slept in my tent ;
and, without concealing from them the real state
of affairs, I simply assured them that whatever
happened to them should also happen to me.
They believed me. They were satisfied that I
** Being one of the boys mentioned, I may as well state, both for
my brother and myself, that we had such entire and perfect faith
in Buckle, that seeing he appeared under no apprehension we
believed the danger extremely remote, and were unconcerned
accordingly. Mr. Glennie also was one of the least alarmed ; but
on his laughing at a gentleman of another party, Buckle
reproved him, and said it was extremely natural, as the man had
heart-disease.
214 The Life and Writings of
meant what I said ; and I am more than repaid by
tlieir confidence and affection.
"The result is that we have seen Petra — as
wonderful, and far more beautiful, than anything
in Egypt, Burkhardt, about forty years ago, was
the first European who ever set foot there ; and
since then, not more probably than lOO persons
have seen it ; that is to say, have really seen it as
we did, at leisure, and spending three whole days
there. Occasionally gentlemen without tents, and
with no food but what they can carry on their own
horse, gallop from Hebron to Petra (about 120
miles) in two days and a half, reaching Petra in
the evening, seeing it by moonlight, and then
gallop back before the Bedouins and Fellahin are
aware of their presence. The English and other
Consuls, and the Governor of Cairo with other
persons of influence, all declared that this was the
only way I could see Petra ; but the hardship of
the journey, and the risk of sleeping in the open
air, prevented me from thinking for a moment of-
such a plan. Among the English here our journey
has created quite a sensation ; and the result is one
of many proofs which have convinced me of the
profound ignorance of officials in the East of every-
thing which their own eyes do not see. I had to
Ihniry llwnias Buckle. 2 i 5
collect all my facts through an interpreter, but I
analyzed and compared them with something more
than official care and precision. Having done so,
I acted ; and I really look back to this passage
through Petra from Egypt as by far the greatest
practical achievement of my life. I believe that
you are both laughing, and I am almost inclined
to laugh myself. But I am conceited about it, and
I think I have reason to be so ; for I must, more-
over, tell you that nearly all our party were more
or less ill with fatigue, anxiety, and the extra-
ordinary vicissitudes of temperature. At 3.30 p.m.
the heat was on one occasion 1 19° Fahr., and before
sunrise the next morning the thermometer had
fallen in the tent (and our tent was by far the
thickest and warmest of all) to 42*^. Headaches,
sickness, bleeding at the nose, and bowel com-
plaints were very common ; but we three had not
even the pain or inconvenience of any kind, except
that * * *. The dear little kids are now the
picture of health, and we are all as brown as
Arabs. * * *
" The truth is that we were the only ones who
had proper food and were properly clothed. We
had plenty of green vegetables preserved ; also
preserved meats of every kind, and excellent pre-
2i6 The Life and Writings of
served Julien soup ; while others, day after day,
lived upon fowls, tasteless mutton, and hard bis-
cuits. They also, in spite of my warning, com-
mitted the enormous but very tempting mistake
of wearing summer clothes in hot weather. On
the other hand, I and the boys had on complete
winter clothing, which was never to be changed
till going to bed, when I always saw myself that
the boys had two good blankets over them, how-
ever warm they might be. Poor often com-
plained of the heat when he went to bed ; but I
was inflexible as to the blankets, being satisfied
that a free and constant action of the skin is the
only safety valve in this dangerous climate. Others
thought differently, and, strong and vigorous young
men as most of them were, they fared differently —
being constantly unwell, and always ascribing their
complaints to the wrong cause.
* * * * * «6
" I am truly sorry to hear of poor Capel's illness,
though I am not much surprised, since for the last
two years I have not been satisfied with his con-
dition. His restlessness and irritability are, I fear
the result of disease. Poor fellow ! it is sad under
any circumstances to feel the brains impaired ; but
■** Only about the postal arrangements.
Henry fhoinas Buckle. 2 i 7
how infinitely sad when there is nothin^^ to com-
pensate the mischief— nothing, if I may so say, to
justify it/" I shall write to him to-day, and do
what I can to soothe him/^
" It is not quite certain that we shall go to
Constantinople, because I have to ascertain the
character of the steamer to Pesth, and the healthi-
ness of the Danube, which is at times visited by
malaria — though, I am at present informed, this is
only in autumn. At all events you shall have the
two or three weeks' notice which you require of
our time for being in Vienna ; and as you say that
with this notice you can both of you arrange to be
there at any time, this prevents all difficulty, and
leaves me free to act. In case of my being in
Germany before I can give you due notice, I wish
you would tell me if there is any healthy, and not
too dull, watering-place between Pesth and Vienna,
or thereabouts, where we could remain while await-
ing your arrival at Vienna. It will not be advisable
that the boys should stay two or three weeks in a
<^ " What booteth it to have been rich alive?
What to be great? what to be gracious?
When after death no token doth survive
Of former being in this mortall hous.
But sleepes in dust dead and inglorious."
Si'K.NSER, The Ruins of Time, \\. Tf^X — 355.
■^ This letter I have not been able to find.
2 1 8 The Life and Writings of
hot and crowded city. Besides, I want to
get them on in German, and it will be quite
time enough to visit their relations after your
arrival.
" Thanks for offering to bring the Mill on the
Floss for me to read ; but you could not do so
without buying it, and it is not worth while to do
that. So, unless you have it already, or can borrow
it, I should much prefer waiting, and reading it in
London. But I want one or two books bought for
my little boys. I w^ant Newman's Hebrew Monarchy
(published, I think, by Chapman anonymously, but
always ascribed to Frank Newman), and the Dic-
tionary of the Bible (or some such title), lately edited
by Dr. William Smith, on the same plan as Smith's
Dictionary of Geography and Mythology ; also ask
Capel for the loan of Carpenter's Physiology. This
is for , but as I am not quite certain whether
he can yet enter into it, I would rather not have it
bought for him, especially as I can lend it to him
in town, and it is an expensive book. Therefore, if
you cannot borrow it, do not bring it. Carpenter's
Human Physiology, or his General Physiology —
either would do. Finally, for myself, please to bring
some of Schiller's poems, or of the minor poems of
Gothe, whichever you have ; or any other German
Ilcnry TJiomas Buckle. 2 1 9
poetry which is good, and which you have already
by you, and will not take up too much room.
" I have so much to see and to do, that I cannot
answer several questions in your letter, as I would
otherwise. But I must tell you that I am far
stronger both in mind and body than I have been
since you knew me, and I feel fit to go on at once
with my work. But I neither read nor write. I
think ; I see ; and I talk. Especially I study the
state of society and habits of the people. We
shall stay here to the end of this week, and then go
to Jericho, the Jordan, Dead Sea, and Bethlehem,
and thence northward for Nazareth, the Sea of
Galilee, Damascus, Baalbec, &c. I feel boyish
enough for anything, and fancy myself growing
younger ; yet I am old, very old — forty on the 24th
of last November. It's a great age."
The day after his arrival, Buckle looked out for
a house to lodge in, for the weather was too wet
to make tent-life pleasant, and the hotel was
bad, and its cookery worse. He was, however,
unsuccessful in his search, and consequently re-
mained at the hotel during the whole of his stay
at Jerusalem. To his stay here may fairly be
ascribed the fever he caught, and finally died of
His time he spent in seeing all that was to be
2 20 The Life and ]Vritmgs of
seen. Of ancient Jerusalem there was then but
little visible, and hence the greatest part of his
time was devoted to what are supposed by some
of the more devout to be the Holy Sepulchre and
other holy places, excursions, the Garden of Geth-
semane, the lepers' quarter, and the bazaars. Here
Mr.Longmoremet him again, but though he regularly
saw him at table-d'hote, he unfortunately kept but
little record of his conversation. " I accompanied
him to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre," says
this gentleman, "and assisted him in buying a
number of rosaries, made of the fruit of the Doum
palm; crosses, seals, paper-cutters, and such like
articles, made from wood of Mount Olivet, offered
for sale in the square before the church ; in all of
which he showed more interest than I should have
anticipated.^^ Next day, at dinner, he said he
*^ Athenaiim, 25th January, 1873, P- "5- Buckle came home
one day smiling, and in reply to a question said, rubbing his hands,
he had every reason to feel elated, as he had just beaten a Jew down
a halfpenny ! in bargaining for some nick-knacks of this sort. IMr.
Glennie relates this as follows :— " Once when he had lagged behind,
near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as we were on our way by
the Via Dolorosa, and St. Stephen's Gate, to the Garden of
Gethsemane, he came up apologizing for having kept me waiting,
but elated with having, in bargaining with a Jew about some glass
bracelets, beat him down from twopence to three-halfpence ; and
as the Jew was always cheating in the court of the Church, even
as his forefathers in that of the Temple, I could not refrain from
Henry Thomas Buckle, 2 2 l
received a letter, I think from Thackeray himself,
intimating his resignation of the editorship of the
Cornhill, and that he proposed devoting himself to
writing a Life of Queen Anne. On Good Friday
Buckle came in too late for dinner, and had, in
consequence, his food served cold, at which he was
very wroth." To judge from the gusto with which
saying that, ' while going to Gethsemane, I had no eye for glass
bracelets.' " — rUgrim Memorks, p. 297.
This remark, apart from its curious inconsequence, and the in-
consistency of the whole with the fact, is worthy of rescue from
Mr. Glennie's ponderous prose. We must remember that the true
Jerusalem was forty or one hundred feet below the filth on which
Mr. Glennie was standing ; that the Garden of Gethsemane is a
pleasing (and lucrative) fiction of the monks ; and that Mr. Glennie,
despite this pious expression, does not in a general way e.\press
extreme veneration, even where veneration might not be misplaced j
as, for instance, the passage, where talking of the Jordan he says, —
" and that other event, as our good Murray says, ' of still more
thrilling interest, the baptism of God himself in its sacred waters.'
An event, certainly, after the mention of which it is, I confess, an
anti-climax to conclude with the fall 'down flat ' of the walls of
Jericho, on the Israelites shouting and blowing their trumpets.
One could, in our respectable caravan, say nothing against literal
belief in these legends ; and so, what expression could one give to
one's contempt of belief, and indignation at pretence of belief in
fables so puerile, so infantile rather ; what expression but that of
utter ignoring of them, in a gay flirtation," &c., &c. (p. 324.)
That this is Mr. Glennie's usual tone of thought, and not the
reverend, which so aptly serves to make Buckle out a thoughtless
miser, his whole Pilgrim Memories will show. Compare especially
pp. 404 and 341.
*» I find by his diary, however, that Buckle dined at the usual
tabU-cVhdte hour, 6. 30 ; and hence conclude that the hour was
changed on that day without hi.-, knowledge.
22 2 The Life and Writings of
he talked of the many capital dinners he had eaten
in London, I think he had a great deal of the
goiirrnet in his tastes. He was not a great eater,
but was rather fastidious in what he ate. He told
me he never got a first-class dinner in a married
man's house — the only unfavourable remark on
matrimony I recollect hearing him make. He
talked also a great deal about ciphers, saying that
no cipher had ever been invented which two men
then in London, Wheatstone and De Morgan, could
not find out. On the 19th of April," continues Mr.
Longmore, " I went with him to the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre, to see the so-called miracle of the
descent of fire from heaven into the tomb of our
Saviour, where the Greek patriarch is shut up
alone. As usual there was a great crowd of Greek
pilgrims crushing and crowding the floor of the
church in a very unpleasant way. Through the
American Consul, I got Buckle a place where he
could see at ease, without being hustled about." ^°
This was a loggia in the gallery of the rotunda
looking down upon the sepulchre. The floor
around was so tightly packed with human
beings that it would have been possible to walk
over their heads ; the heat, noise, and babel of
*° ^//^^«<^MOT, for 25th January. 1873, p. 116.
Henry Thoinas Bncldc. 223
voices were beyond description. The rain was all
the while pouring continuousl}' through the circular
opening of the dome of the rotunda upon the
sepulchre beneath. Looking down upon this
seething mass, Buckle had to wait more than
three hours, as the miracle was unpunctual — or it
was waiting for the priest, who was unpunctual, as
he had to wait for the pasha, and pashas are always
unpunctual. At last the Patriarch entered the
sepulchre, and soon after a flame issued forth from
a sort of pigeon-hole on the side. The multitude
became frantic. Candles were produced, and the
light spread with marvellous rapidity all over the
church, even the galleries contributing to the smoke
and blaze. Men passed the flame round their
faces, to prove that it would not harm them : for
was it not of heavenly origin .'* Others produced
pieces of rag, which they bedewed with grease, in
the hope that these drops of wax, melted in divine
fire, and buried with them, would cheat the devil of
his due.
At last the hurly-burly is done, and Buckle
returned, much impressed, to the hotel. Mr. Long-
more asked him what he thought of it .-' " A great
deal," said Buckle ; " pious frauds have been con-
sidered allowable in all ages of the Church." He
2 24 "^^^ I^^f^ ^^^ IVri tings of
resumed the subject on another occasion at dinner ;
and, talking besides of some processions he had seen,
made some little jocular remarks upon the dresses of
the monks. Seeing how the company were enjoying
these sallies, Mr. Gray, who was seated near him,
coughed audibly. Buckle leant back in his chair,
and said, " Really, Gray, I would not have said
what I did had I thought it could possibly hurt
your feelings." Mr. Gray answered that Buckle
ought to know him better by that time, and that
he had only coughed to warn him that he was
listening to his remarks, and remind him that he
was a Catholic. However, Buckle turned the con-
versation by saying, " You know I do not think as
you do ; but, after all, there are many things
equally difficult of belief which the Protestants
accept." "And pray, Mr. Buckle," said the Ger-
man clergyman who sat opposite, " what may
those things be which you find so difificult of
belief .? " " Well," said Buckle, " take, for instance,
the supposition that Jonah lived three days in a
whale's belly, and then came out still alive." " Oh,"
said the German, " but that was a miracle." " That
is an assumption on your part," replied Buckle,
" not a proof that it really occurred." " Then you
don't believe in miracles .-• " said the German, rather
Henry Thomas Buckle. 225
nettled. " If you mean by a miracle," replied Buckle,
" the reversal of the laws of nature, then I do not."
Upon this the German lost his temper, and left the
table ; and the two other clerf^ymen thought it
their duty to do likewise. As they departed, Buckle
turned round to the company, and solemnly ex-
claimed, " See how they flee ! " The conversation
was now centred on religious subjects. Buckle
talked of the Prophets, and maintained against
some of the company that Isaiah was the greatest,
greater even than Jeremiah ; astonishing them
by the quotations he was able to give in support of
his assertion. After dinner the talk was still con-
tinued. He said he believed in the New Testament
after eliminating the supernatural ; that he con-
sidered Jesus Christ the greatest teacher and civi-
lizer of mankind that ever lived ; declared " that
there was that in His teaching which it was difficult,
indeed impossible, to account for without believing
Him to have been divinely inspired." In reply to
a question whom he placed next as a civilizer of
mankind, he answered without hesitation, " William
Shakespeare."*^ Of the two, however, he placed
Shakespeare first in the order of mind — one of " the
'■■^ J. A. Lonjjmorc, '\\\\}rni Athaia:um, pp. 115, 116. 25th January,
1873-
VOL. II. O
2 26 The Life and Writings of
two mightiest intellects our country has produced,"
as he calls him ; " the greatest of the sons of men ;"
" the greatest of our masters."" Indeed, he con-
sidered Shakespeare to have been inspired, as Christ,
and as all great minds who possess true genius, the
real breath of God. He afterwards said he had
never known but one real atheist, and that he was
a cabinet minister.**
On Monday, 2ist of April, Buckle and his party
set out for Bethlehem, all on horseback, but the
former rejoicing in the extra comfort of a cavalry
saddle, which he had bought at Jerusalem. In an
hour-and-a-half ride, Bethlehem was reached, and
then two hours were devoted to the convent, the
church of the Nativity, and the Greek and Latin
chapels, the cave of Adullam, where David longed
for the water of the well of Bethlehem, and the
well of Bethlehem with the water which David
longed for. From thence they rode to Mar Saba,
where they had appointed to meet their com-
panions of the desert. The monastic rules were
too strict to allow of the admission of the ladies of
one of the parties, who consequently had to en-
camp outside ; but the monks console themselves
53 //istory of Civilization, vol. i. p. 432 ; vol. ii. pp. 42, 404.
** Athenmim, lit sup.
Iloiry lliouias Ihicklc. 227
for the deprivation of female society, and cheat
their founder, the holy St. Sabas, by drinking
arrack, a liquor which, as it was not invented
A.I). 532, and as the saint had apparently no pro-
phetic soul, was not included among the prohibited
drinks of his foundation. The whole party started
early the next morning down the rocky road to
the Dead Sea, a region which, as of yore, is still
infested with robbers. Thieves accompanied them,
as a visible sign and receipt of the blackmail which
had been levied ;" and at one o'clock, the hottest
time of the day, they arrived at the lowest point of
the surface of the globe, the valley of the Dead
Sea.^" Here Buckle filled one of the tins he had
had made in Cairo for specimens of the water of
the Nile. Red Sea, Dead Sea, Jordan, and Tiberias.
From this scene of desolation they rode on to the
refreshing waters of the Jordan, and thence to
" It is related of a gentleman and his wife who, refusing to pay
blackmail, ventured on this road a few years later, that they were
set upon, and stripped of all they had with the exception of the
Times newspaper. The gentleman returned to Jerusalem clad in
the body of that journal, while his wife was forced to content heiself
with the supplement.
*^ It is 1292 feet below the level of the sea. Mr. Glennie takes
the opportunity to sneer at Buckle because he did not expose his
feeble person to the sun in the hottest part of the day in the hottest
part of Palestine, " to experience the singular sensation of being
unable to sink."— /'/4'7-m Manoriis, p. 323.
O 2
2 28 The L ife and ]]^rit{ngs of
their encampment at Jericho. The next day they
returned to Jerusalem by Bethany, a place Buckle
did not stop at, as he had already made an excur-
sion to it from Jerusalem.
Having seen all that was to be seen in this disa-
greeable and ill-smelling town, Buckle set out the
next day. He had just received a letter from the
boys' mother, in which was copied out the chief
part of Mill's notice of the History of Civilization,
in his fifth edition of the Syston of Logic ^'' where,
talking of the causation of social phenomena, he
says that Buckle has not only popularized the
great principle of General Laws, but clearly and
triumphantly shown that masses are governed by
them in the same way as individuals are. At the
same time he thinks, like so many others, that
Buckle has asserted that morals are of no effect in
civilization, though he agrees with him in attribut-
ing to the advance of knowledge the great im-
provement in moral actions, moraX principles remain-
ing very much the same ; and hence, to the advance
of knowledge the main, the chiefest, and almost
exclusive agency in the advancement of civilization.
Hence Buckle's contemptuous remark on the savage
at Petra, ' Vice is better than ignorance ;' for well
'7 Vol. ii., 1862, pp. 524, et seq.
Ilciuy Tliomas Ihickle. 229
he knew that tlic worst vice was ignorance, just as
the greatest sinner is tiie instigator to sin. Let
a community be vicious if you will, but if they
cultivate knowledge, true and real knowledge, and
not that semblance which goes under the name of
an " acquaintance with literature,' they must im-
prove ; no power on earth can stop it. This letter
gave Buckle great pleasure : " Only a woman
would have thought of sending me these extracts,"
said he ; and during the first day's journey he had
a long talk with Mr. Glennie on Mill's remarks.'*
They encamped that evening at 'Ain-el-Haramiyeh,
or the Robber's Fountain, a distance of five hours'
journey from Jerusalem, having rested at Bethel an
hour and a quarter. " But though," as Buckle says
in his diary, he '' rose at seven, such was the delay
of the muleteers that we did not leave Jerusalem
till eleven." He encamped at six, and dined at
*^ Pilgrim Memories, p. 330. "So gratified, indeed, was Mr.
Buckle that, for the first and hist time," says Mr. Glennie, " in my
recollection of him, he expanded in a humorous practical joke —
presenting one of the fellows of the encircling crowd with a cheap
Jerusalem cigar, which, as he whispered to me, he had found would
not draw." This is very probable, as Buckle had no objection to
harmless practical jokes ; it is also very probable that it 7viis the
only one that appeared humorous to Mr. Glennie. But Buckle
would rather have given up smoking altogether than smoke bad
tobacco ; and never, as far as I recollect, bought a cigar in Jeru-
salem. He laid in a stock of Manillas at Suez.
230 TJic Life and IVritmgs of
seven o'clock. They reached Nabulus the next
day, at one o'clock, after six hours' ride, including
a rest of twenty minutes. Here he walked up
Mount Gerizim, a fatiguing walk in the hot sun,
and then visited the Samaritan synagogue, saw the
Samaritan Pentateuch, and bought a Samaritan
MS. ; and the next day attended service in the
synagogue at 6.30, wliere all the chiefs of the few
remaining Samaritan families were assembled,
clothed in white, and, to the untrained car, making
a tremendous noise. At about six the same even-
ing he encamped at Jenin, just on the edge of the
plain of Esdraelon, having seen the church of
St. John, at Samaria, on the way. He was up the
next day at his usual hour, notwithstanding that
he had been eleven hours in the saddle the day
before, and, with the escort of one picturesque
Arab guard, which is usual in crossing the dan-
gerous plain of Esdraelon, started at 7.30 and
encamped at Nazareth at 2.30. The route fol-
lowed was that by the mound and ruins of El-
Fuleh, an important spot during the Crusades, but
now of little interest. Indeed, throughout Pales-
tine the historical spots are of but little interest,
and generally of but little authenticity ; the general
features of the country are, as a rule, the only real
Henry T/iojnas Buckle. 231
points of interest, and not such things as the reputed
prison of St. John.
Buckle's system had hitherto battled bravely
with the fever, whicli, as I have said, must have
seized him at Jerusalem, but weakened by the
fatigues of the last two days, he succumbed at
Nazareth for the first time.*' He did not give way,
however, without a fight. After a bad night he rose
at eight, and enters in his diary, " Much better, but
shall rest here all day. From 10.30 to 12 made notes
from New Testament. Towards afternoon it rained
with great heaviness, and I thought it better to sleep
at the convent." The rain in addition against him
wasmore than he could bear up against; and the next
morning he woke with a bad sore throat, which he
had felt coming on the evening before ; he had no
appetite, and felt so weak that, with the exception
of two hours in the afternoon, he remained in bed
all day, unable to read. While Buckle was lying
ill here, Mr. Gray and his party arrived at Naza-
reth ; " and although," he observes, " we were told
that Mr. Buckle was lying ill at the monastery, I
could not help noticing that I was the only one
^9 Mr. Glennie hints that this was due to "a certain imprudence
of diet ! ! " Pil^im Memories, p. 365. Bucl^le was more particular
in his diet than in any other point of physical conduct.
2 "52
*" o **
The Life and Writings of
who called upon him. He was in bed, and, point-
ing to his throat, told me he was sorry that he
could only converse with me in a whisper, but
asked me to sit down near him, and we conversed
on various topics. I shall not easily forget the
interest with which he listened to my narration
how I fell into the hands of robbers at Shiloh, near
Nabulus. He said that he had been so interested
in his journey that he thought of going next year
to Persia, and invited me to accompany him. Next
year I had to travel through Persia with another,
for my friend had performed his last journey. I
advised him to call one of the monks, who was a
doctor. He replied, ' I hear he is a Spaniard. Do
you believe in Spanish doctors .-* ' And I Avas
obliged to confess I had no experience of them."
He doctored himself from a little medicine-chest
he had brought with him from England, and
enters in his diary, "Took six grains compound
rhubarb pill." But the next morning, "feeling
worse, I sent early for an Armenian doctor. He
touched the left tonsil with lunar caustic, and
applied a small blister externally ; told me to
keep very warm, and by no means to get up, and
to take at night another six-grain rhubarb pill."
The doctor returned again at seven the following
t
Ilemy Thomas Buckle. 233
day ; but even then neither he nor Buckle recog-
nized the true nature of the disease. He told
Buckle that an ulcer was forming, which he touched
with caustic, and then very unwisely ordered him
half a grain of antimony, to be taken every two
hours. " After two doses I found the sickness
insupportable," says the unfortunate patient, "' and
I refused to take more, to the great regret of my
Armenian doctor, who visits me twice a day, and,
though a very civil man, is, I fear, a very ignorant
one. He told me to keep in bed all day." "A
restless night, with great prostration, amounting
almost to wandering, confirmed my opinion that I
am being badly treated. When, therefore, the
doctor came, at 8 a.m., I persuaded him to
send me some muriate of iron, of which I took ten
drops in a wine-glassful of water. I further or-
dered strong mutton-broth to be made ; for since
Tuesday" I have had nothing stronger than rice-
water and milk ; and at 10 a.m. I got up, and am
now writing my journal (11. 15) with the window
open. The throat is very painful v/hen I swallow,
but I feel better in all other respects. I would not
let the doctor meddle with my throat this morning,
as I wish the ulcer to reach its full size, and then
*' Tliis was Friday.
2 31- The Life and Writings of
be lanced." The next day he writes, "Much
better, but appetite being bad, and tongue covered
Avith a coat like white cream, I took at 6,30 a.m.
two of Mr. Morgan's pills, containing grey powder.
Rose at 7.30. Ate no breakfast. Walked half an
hour ; the first time I have been out. In after-
noon played backgammon. The only nourishment
I can take is mutton broth with toast, and occa-
sionally a little milk. But at 6.30 I took half a
wine-glass of brandy in two tumblers of water, and
felt better after it." The next day, Sunday, he was
again " much better ; ate two eggs and drank a cup
of milk forbreakfast ; walked half an hour,^' and even
smoked a cigar as he sat reading under a fig-tree.
But it was only his throat that was better. The
insidious disease had not yet mastered him ; but it
was steadily gaining ground, and ever ready to
show itself when given the slightest advantage.
All the delay of his illness mattered little to
Buckle himself ; but he felt, and was always re-
gretting, the enforced delay of Mr. Glennie, in-
volving a waste of time and money to that
gentleman ; and he started on Monday morning for
Tabaria, or Tiberias, but in so weak a state that,
as he sadly notes in his diary, " I could only walk
my horse all the way," and had to rest for two
Hoiry Thovias Buckle. 235
hours and a quarter on tlic road/' He was a little
stronger the next day, and able to stroll about
Tabaria, see the hot springs, peep for a minute into
the bath-house — where he notes that he saw the
"people bathing, a curious but disgusting scene" —
and also into the synagogue. He afterwards at-
tempted to buy a ph}lactery from some of the
Jews who were of German origin, and spoke Ger-
man to him ; but their demands were so extortionate,
and their German so bad, that he grew quite angry,
and bought nothing. For now he was changed in
this respect, and could no longer keep his temper
as before. Not that he was irascible or fretful ;
but little things would irritate him, in a way that
was all the more observable because of his usually
admirable temper in health, and constant flow of
spirits, which now diminished, but never quite left
him up to his death. From Tabaria he rode back
to Nazareth, resting two and a half hours on the
way, and " able to trot and canter a little."
The remainder of his journey is but little more
than a record of illness, weakness, exhaustion, and
unabated energy, interest, and delight in what he
'• I do not wish to reflect on Mr. Glennie by this passage, for
he, of course, knew nothing of Buckle's motive beyond what poHte
expressions of regret could convey, or his manifest weakness could
hint.
236 The Life and Writings of
saw. He left Nazareth, and reached Akka, on
Mav 7th, after five and a half hours' journey, and a
rest of two hours ; and then walked through the
town and round the fortifications, and looked into
the prison — a large dungeon, where thieves and
murderers, the least bad and the very worst, were
confined together, loaded with chains, but other-
wise free to do very much as they liked. They
cooked their own food at a large bonfire in the
middle, and a begging committee sat in perma-
nence behind the grated gate. The next day
Buckle rose with a bad sore throat again, but
started all the same at eight, along the fertile
plain of Akka, across the " Tyrian ladder " — a dif-
ficult pass on a spur of Lebanon, which forms the
first defence of Tyre — and encamped by the ruins
of Alexandroschene. After six hours' riding and
two hours' rest he was " quite exhausted, and fell
asleep before dinner." He started again the next
morning, with his throat worse than the day
before, and resumed his painful march over the
" White Cape," the path of which is more difficult
than that of the Tyrian ladder, and stopped at
Ras el 'Ain to examine the enormous reservoirs,
which are curious from the means adopted for
raising the water. The springs are situated in the
Ilcnry Thomas Jhtckle. 237
plain, and gush with such force from the earth that
if allowed, they would form natural fountains
twenty-five feet hi^h. The ancient inhabitants,
however, knew better than to waste this valuable
gift. They built round each spring a massive wall,
of enormous and unnecessary strength, which
formed huge reservoirs raised above the plain, and
supplied various aqueducts till almost modern
times, but now only serve t6 drive a single mill.
From thence, along the sweep of sand which has
accumulated over Alexander's mole, he rode to
Tyre, where he went out in a boat to see the
columns and other ruins, which were quite visible
under the transparent water, though not so visible
as they would have been had the water been
smoother. Thence, leaving at about half-past two,
and neglecting to visit the " tomb of Hiram," he
travelled along the plain of Phoenicia, and en-
camped at a spot near the mouth of the Nahr el
Kasimiyeh, probably the ancient Leontes, about
four o'clock.
During the night there was a long and violent
storm, which, together with the pain he suffered
from his throat, and probabl)' the malaise of
t}'phoid fever, caused him to sleep very badly.
Several times, too, in his anxiety for the boys under
8 77/6' Life and W^i'iiings of
his care, he got up to feel if the rain had pene-
trated the double roof of the tent. The day's
journey was six hours, and he arrived at Sidon at
3 p.m., where, he says, he " found rooms in a house,"
and then " sent for the French resident doctor, who
turns out to be a very intelligent man, and is a friend
of Renan's. He says I only need rest." He could
eat nothing but mutton-broth ; and the next day,
after breakfasting in bed, he removed to the con-
vent, where the monks gave him "excellent rooms."
The following day his throat was " nearly well ;
but I feel very weak," he adds, and only walked a
quarter of an hour during the day. But he amused
himself by playing backgammon, and looking at
some Phoenician antiquities, which were sent for
his inspection, and of which he bought several.
The French Government were then making ex-
cavations in the neighbourhood, but Buckle was
too weak to visit them, though he pushed on for
Beyrout the next day, encamping about half way
after being four hours and a half in the saddle.
He rose the next day "stronger, notwithstanding a
bad night," and arrived at Beyrout at ii a.m. the
14th May, lodging at the Hotel Belle Vue. Here, the
same day, he wrote a letter, of melancholy interest
as the last he ever penned : —
IIoD-y Tlionias Bitckle. 239
"We have arrived here," he says, "all well, after
a journey from Jerusalem entirely beyond all de-
scription. We diverged westward, after visiting
the Sea of Galilee, in order to travel through
Phcenicia. We saw T}-re and Sidon, and got much
valuable information respecting the excavations
conducted there for the last eighteen months by
the French Government. * * *
" To-morrow we shall see the Assyrian remains
near here ; and the next day start for Damascus,
Baalbek, and return to Bej'rout by the cedars of
Lebanon — the oldest and grandest trees in the
world.
" I have most reluctantly abandoned Constanti-
nople ; because, although wc should be there and
up the Danube long before the unhealthy season, I
am advised that the nights on the river are occa-
sionally damp, and dangerous for weak eyes, and
I cannot quite satisfy mj-sclf about the protection
the berths afford. I don't choose to risk my * * *
to having inflamed conjunctiva, for he has now had
nothing the matter with his eyes for more than five
months, and I intend to bring him back sound and
invigorated in all respects.
" The only other route to Vienna is by Trieste.
W'e must therefore take the steamer from here to
240 TJic Life and ]]^ri tings of
Smyrna, Syra, and Athens. We shall see little or
nothing of Greece, as the weather will be too hot.
The journey is not very interesting-, but we have
had our fill of interest, and must think of health.
" I expect to be at Trieste about the middle of
June; and as you said that the end of July would
suit you to reach Vienna, this leaves me a clear
month, which I purpose spending in Gratz, or
Gratz, in Styria, on the railroad between Trieste
and Vienna. It is very healthy, has fine air, and
is well known for masters and education. I shall
take a small house, or part of a large one, have
none but German servants, and work the boys well
in German.
" Please, therefore, direct your next letter to Post
Office, Gratz or Gratz (I find even Germans pro-
nounce it differently), and send to the same place
the books I asked for in my last letter, viz. Newman's
Hebrew Monarchy (or Commonwealth), published
by Chapman ; and Smith's new Dictionary of
Biblical History and Geography. This is by Dr.
William Smith, and the book is on the same
plan as his Dictionary of Mythology. To this I
now add Kenrick's Phoenicia, as my boys have
been much interested in Phoenicia, and want to
know more about it than I have told them. I
I Tony TJionias Buckle. 241
shall take apartments in a house at Gratz for one
month, and hope to take back the boys good
Germanists. Four weeks' rest and good work will,
after all this excitement, benefit body and mind.
Consequently, if we were finally to name the ist of
August as our day of meeting, it might be well.
Send also to Gratz, carefully packed in a tin
canister, two pounds of tea. * * *
" I shall send from here (probably vid Alexandria)
two wooden cases. The largest contains nothing
but curiosities — shells from the Red Sea, coral,
antiquities, &c. ; and you may confidently declare
that there is nothing to pay duty ; but if opened,
the repacking will require great care. The other
and smaller case contains about twenty pounds of
the finest Latakia tobacco, iinnianufacturcd. To
pass this a permit from the Customs will, I believe,
be required ; but you will know how to proceed.
The tobacco must be kept in a dry place, of equable
temperature, specially avoiding heat."
The same day he brought his dragoman before
the consul for not properly fulfilling his contract.
It is not unusual for these men to behave exceed-
ingly well during the trip up the Nile, in the hope of
being taken on through Palestine, and then, relying
on not being prosecuted, to supply the party badly
VOL. II. K
O /I T
TJie Life and Writings of
during the journey. Hassan had not brought a
sufficient quantity of suppHes from Cairo, nor had
he made up this deficiency where he had the op-
portunity ; and, moreover, the progress of his
illness made Buckle fretful, and the less likely to
look over such things. As Hassan understood
Italian best of all European languages. Buckle spoke
his accusation in that tongue, with the result that
Hassan was ordered to refund a part of his pay.
Another symptom had also begun prominently to
show itself. For the last few days, notwithstanding
his weakness, loss of appetite, and bad nights, he
had become restless, and anxious to finish his
journey. He felt it impossible to come so far, and
then leave without seeing Damascus, the dream of
his boyhood. A gentleman staying at the same
hotel, seeing how haggard he looked, urged him to
return to Europe and recruit his health — but in |
vain. A great part of the following day was spent
in settling with Hassan at the consulate, in en-
gaging another dragoman, and making arrange-
ments for the continuation of the journey.
And still neither he nor any one about him
recognized the nature of his disease. " Walked for
one hour about the town/' he writes, May i6th.
"Feel better to-day than I have done yet." If he
Ilcnry Thonuu BucJdc. 243
had only been stricken down then, or delayed a day
or two, we might now see the History of Civiliza-
tioji complete ! But at one o'clock he started by
the new French road, the only one in the whole of
S}'ria or Palestine that can be dignified with the
name ; and having sent on the tents and horses to
El-Merj, beyond which point the road was un-
finished, he did the six hours' journey in a carriage,
and arrived again terribly knocked up. " Oh this
body ! It is no body at all !" *'• he bitterly exclaimed.
And the next day his appetite was worse again, he
could only take a little milk for breakfast, and some
of the other symptoms of his disease recurred.
Nevertheless, he again set out at nine o'clock,
walking his horse along the road where practicable,
and when turned off by guards, or where the road
was unfinished, along the winding track which did
duty for a road. He rested three and a half hours
at midday, and during this rest spoke to Mr.
Glennie of his life."
" I have spent fourteen years of uninterrupted
happiness, which, I imagine, few people can boast
of. But then it was spent in work such as few men
•2 Glennie, Pilp-im Memories, p. 439.
*' Mr. Glennie puts it at this point of the journey (Pi!^ri/ii
Memories, p. 440) ; and though I rememhor the conversation. I do
not remember w licrc it occurreil.
K 2
244 1^'i(^ L^fi (^^^<^ Waitings of
have cared to undergo." His mother's ilhicss and
death had broken the spell ; but the wound was
doubtlessly healing, and had he lived he would
again have been happy, if not as happy as before.
But death was already upon him^ and it was not to
be. The whole day he could eat nothing solid ;
his dinner that evening was only soup. But there
was still the indomitable will — the prepotent mind,
too powerful for the overtasked body. Notwith-
standing the increasing gravity of his symptoms
he again rose at six the following day, though he
had passed a very bad night ; again his breakfast
consisted only of a draught of milk, and his weakness
was so great that he was scarce able to sit his
horse. Three times had he to dismount and rest
during that day's journey ; and once, where the
valley of the Abana forms an oasis, in the road
between the desert plateau of Sahra and the ridge
of Hermon, Mr. Glennie heard a cry behind him,
" and turning round saw Mr. Buckle clinging to the
neck of his horse. A stirrup had suddenly given
way, and he had been almost thrown. The effect
of this on nerves so overworn by excitement, as
his now were, can easily be imagined. And as I
assisted him from his horse, he said 'a sweat of
terror had burst over him.'"®''
"■' Pil^riiii Me7Hories, p. 449. Mr. Glcnnic hai thought it judicious
Henry TJiomas Biicklc. 245
There was now the rocky ridge of Hermon to
surmount, from whence the magnificent view, so
often celebrated by travellers, burst suddenly upon
him/'* Buckle was deeply affected, and dismount-
ing, sat down and gazed upon the panorama spread
below. This was the sight which had filled his
childish dreams as he read the Thousand and One
Nisrhts at his mother's knee — that dear mother he
was so soon to rejoin. This was also the historic
plain, the site of many a speculation of maturcr
years. Did the shadows of the illustrious line of
Hadad, of the leper Naaman, the proud Assyrian
Lord Cyzicenus, Aretas, or Paul "the man who
had done most harm to the world," of the Muslims
to omit the passage, " He was now quite beyond concealing fear,"
which he had in liis account furnished in 1S63 to Fraser's Afagarnie,
p. 184.
"^ Ariosto describes it as if he had seen it : —
" Delle pill ricche terre di Levante,
Delle piu popolose e meglio ornate
Si dice esser Damxsco, che distante
Siede a Gerusalcm sette giomale,
In un piano fruttifero e abbondante,
Non men {.'iocondo il vemo, che 1' estate.
A questa Terra il primo raggio tolle
Delia nasccnte Aurora un vicin colle.
" Per la cilti duo fiumi cristallini
Vanno inaftlando per diversi rivi
Un numero infinilo di giardini,
Non mai di fior, non mai di fronde privi."
OrlaUiio /'/trinso, Canto W'll., .rr-///., .v/.r.
246 The Life and Wi'itings of
sword in hand, followed by the graceful figures of
Ghanim, the son of Eiyoob, the distracted slave of
love, of Noor ed-Deen, of 'Ala ed-Deen, or Marids
and Jan, 'Efreets and Perees, again people the
smiling plain ? Did he revert to great historic
principles, and, looking down from this vantage-
ground, seeing this sea of foliage bounded by a
desert, the fertilizing streams, the luxury of position,
of colour, of climate, and of fertility, again bow to
the great power of nature over the minds and
imaginations of mankind ? Long did he gaze at
that living picture. With the hand of death upon
him, his keen sense of beauty had not yet gone —
"This is worth all that it has cost me!" he exclaimed;
and what it had cost him was, his life.
That very night as he arrived at the hotel, at
eight o'clock, after a fatiguing ride through the
lanes of the suburb, he sent for the only qualified
doctor in the place. Dr. Nicora, a Frenchman ;
for, as he describes himself, he was " utterly
prostrate." The doctor gave him no advice that
evening, but called again the following morning,
Monday, 19th. Buckle had again passed a wretched
night ; his tongue was white, he suffered from great
and constant thirst. But the doctor failed to
recognize his disease, and treated it as a common
Henry Thomas Buckle. 247
choleraic attack ; ordered him to continue soup, and
yolks of eggs beaten up with a little brandy, but
not to take too much milk ; to allay his thirst he
was to take eight to ten drops of laudanum in a
quart decanter of rice-water, two decanters in the
twenty -four hours; and actually ordered him, con-
trary to the dictates of his appetite, to eat solid
food — a cutlet, if possible, twice a day. He
accordingly ate a cutlet for breakfast, and then
went out for a walk of half an hour's duration in
the bazaars, leaning on the arm of his dragoman.
At dinner that day he was unable to sit at the
table, which was spread in the courtyard of this
truly Oriental hotel, between the fountain and the
alcove, on the far sofa of which Buckle was lying,
apparently half asleep. As the soup was being
served, he suddenly started up, crying " Oh, mon
Dieu, je deviens fou ! " There was a great sensation
at the table, and he was taken up-stairs, but
remained delirious the whole evening, though he
was able to undress and go to bed. This attack
he attributed to the laudanum he had been ordered
to take, which might have had such an effect on
his exhausted and weakened frame.
On Monday or Tuesday Mr. Glennie had called
on the acting consul, Mr. Sandwith, and informed
248 The Life and Writings of
him that he was travelHng with Mr. Buckle, and
that Mr. Buckle was at present ill. Mr. Sandwith
at once sent a message asking permission to call
upon him ; for which he expressed his thanks, but
asked him to defer his visit until he should be
better. In the meanwhile, Dr. Nicora at last dis-
covered that his patient was suffering from typhoid
fever, and immediately adopted the lowering treat-
ment. Hewanted to bleed him, but Buckle strongly
objected, and only consented at last to be locally
leeched, for he knew well enough the danger of this
method of treatment, and especially of bleeding.®'*
Accordingly he refused to follow the doctor's
advice, but treated himself from the small medicine
chest which he had brought with him from England,
but soon got too weak even to do this, and the
doctor had his own way. He was leeched on
Saturday 24th, Sunday 25th, and Tuesday 27th,
and the lowering treatment put into full prac-
tice.
On Thursday 22nd, Mr. Glennie called again on
Mr. Sandwith,^'^ " to say that he could not con-
ne " Yhg most remarkable symptom of the typhoid poison is the
extreme degree of prostration, both of the physical and of the
intellectual powers, which it produces. * * * Bleeding is most
pernicious." See his Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works, vol. i.
pp. 403, 404.
*' Pilgrim Memories, p. 465
Henry Thomas BucJvle. 249
vcnientiy stay any longer, as he was anxious to see
Baalbek before quitting Syria, and intended setting
out thither at once. He added, that he considered
Mr. Buckle so far better as to justify his leaving
him." "" " Relieved at hearing a better account, I
ventured," continues Vlx. Sandwith, " as soon as
Mr. Glennie had left, to call at the hotel," and on
Sunday 25th he received Mr. Buckle's permission
to visit him. " I found Mr. Buckle in bed," he
says, " with a worn and anxious look ; and sitting
by his bedside I talked with him for about a
quarter of an hour." Buckle spoke with him of
Damascus and his travels; the old fire began to
return, and he talked with considerable animation,
among other things mentio.iing, with great admira-
tion, the name of Dean Stanley, whose mind he '
considered one of the most fruitful in the English
Church, and of rare independence ; and incidentally,
that religion, being of all others the subject of
most importance to mankind, had consequently
engrossed some of the deepest minds in all ages.
Judging that he was fatigued, Mr. Sandwith then
left, at the same time making arrangements to
take the boys, who were still at the hotel, but no
longer in the same room, and of whom "he seemed
*" Letter of Mr. Sandwith to Henry Hutli.
250 The Life and Writings of
very fond," for a ride through the beautiful gardens
of Damascus.
On Monday 26th Mr. Sandwith called again,
with Mr. Robson, a missionary, when they found
the patient's mind beginning to wander, and his
symptoms generally becoming so grave that they
thought it advisable to ask him if he had any
testament to make ; but he was not sufficiently
himself to respond pertinently to their questions.
Mr. Sandwith then persuaded Dr. Nicora to allow
him to telegraph to Beyrout for an American
physician. Dr. Barclay ; he also procured an
Englishwoman, who had had experience in nurs-
ing, to sit with Buckle ; and he and Mr. Robson
thenceforward were almost constant in their
attendance at his bedside.
Even now, despite the dreadful state of weakness
to which poor Buckle was reduced, his life might
possibly have been saved. Mr. Sandwith tele-
graphed on Monday 26th, at two o'clock in the after-
noon ; and allowing two hours for receipt of tele-
gram and preparation, the doctor might, with hard
riding, have arrived by eight o'clock on the Tuesday
morning. But by the criminal neglect of the tele-
graph clerks, Dr. Barclay did not receive it until
twelve hours after it was sent, and then, instead of
Ilciwy T/iomas Buckle. 251
at once starting off, he telegraphed back to ask
whether his services were yet required ; and precious
time was lost before a second telegram, requiring
his immediate presence, reached him. During
Tuesday Buckle's mind was clearer again ; he
recognized those around him, often sweetly smiling
when the bovs came into the room, but he was
never equal to any sustained mental effort ; his
articulation was very imperfect, and towards even-
ing his mind was wandering again. Dr. Barclay
arrived at three o'clock on Wednesday 28th, and at
once pronounced tlie case almost hopeless. The
patient was insensible, breathing heavily, and his
pulse was at 130, feeble and intermittent; there
were besides indications of internal hzemorrhagc.
Without waiting for Dr. Nicora, he at once gave
him stimulants ; and when that gentleman arrived,
he persuaded him to agree to this method of treat-
ment.'"
*' "I found him apparently moribund, comatose, with stertorous
breathing, occasionally spasmodic, involuntary discharges, vomit-
ting a black fluid like coffee-grounds, pulse very frequent (130 a
minute), feeble, and intermitting, and extremities cold. * * *
I administered an enema of assafoetida, and ordered brandy-and-
water to be given, and sinapisms to be applied to extremities.
* * * After some two hours the doctor called, and pronounced
the case better than when he called in the forenoon, the pulse
having become regular, fuller, and comparatively soft, and a warm
perspiration having appeared on the forehead and chest. The
252 The Life and Writings of
About eight o'clock the same evening con-
sciousness began to return, and he managed to
intimate that he wished to see his little travelling
companions. They came in, one at a time. The
first he beckoned to him, and as he bent down to
kiss him, put his arm round his neck and murmured,
"Poor little boys!" The other sat with him for
about an hour. He had a very quiet night, with
intervals of consciousness ; but at six in the morn-
a sudden and very marked change for the worse
became but too painfully evident ; and at a quarter
past ten he quietly breathed his last, with merely a
wave of the hand.
" I shall never forget the look of intellectual
majesty as well as of sweet dignity which death had
stamped upon his features — features which, in their
sharply defined outlines, caused by excessive thin-
ness, bore little resemblance," says Mr. Sandvvith,
" to a photograph of the deceased which I have
since seen." '" That same afternoon we carried him
to his last resting-place, in the little Protestant
breathing was also easier and more natural. After some discussion
I induced Dr. Nicora to agree to the stimulant plan of treatment,
viz., carbonate of ammonia, stupes of oil of turpentine over the
abdomen, which was tympanitic, and the brandy to be continued ;
also a blister was applied to the neck, and very strong chicken-
broth administered during the night." — Evidence of Dr. Bairlay.
'" He never had but one taken.
Henry Thovias JhicJcle. 253
cemetery, " a little company of real mourners — the
doctor, Mr. Robson who had watched with me by
the pillow of the departed, myself, and those two
boys, the sons of Mr. Huth, who were heart-broken
at the sudden loss of their noble-minded companion
and friend." The Syrian sun shone hotly down
as the solemn Anglican burial service was read,
and mother-earth closed over that vesture of decay
which, for so short a time, had enwrapped his
immortal soul.
THE END.
IN MEMORY
OF
HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE,
ONLY SON or THE LATETHOMAS
HENRY BUCKLE ANOJANC HISWIFE,
WHO DIED or FEVER AT DAMASCUS
0NTHE29-MAY,186?,
AGED 40 YEARS.
THIS STONE IS MOST ArrtCTIONAT£LY
DCDICATCO BY HIS LOVINC AHO ONLY
SURVIVING SltTCR.
U I KNOW THAT HC SHALL
RISC ACAIN"
>i'afc>K>iMJIi*3iHUiKSi
^mE^<sss^
To fuep. 254, Vol. J I.
APPENDIX.
MR. GLENNIE'S MEMORIES.
ALL the biographies of any importance have
already received sufficient notice in the
course of this work. But there yet remains one, on
the last few months of Buckle's life, which, coming
from the pen of a fellow-traveller, and professing to
be records of Travel and Discussion iJi the Birth-
coiuitries of CJiristianity with the late Henry TJiomas
Buckle, would appear to be of greater importance
than it really is.
How Mr. Buckle made Mr. Glennie's acquaint-
ance ; how, feeling his health improve, and his love
of conversation revive, he sought a companion for
the remainder of his journc)-, and, failing the
company of any one else, secured that of Mr.
Glennie, has already been described. How they
met at Suez, and continued their travels together
256 Appendix,
until ]\Ir. Buckle was struck down at Damascus
with typhoid fever ; how Mr. Glennie, unwilling to
waste his time in attendance on his dying com-
panion, left for Baalbek, and Mr. Buckle died— has
also been related, and need not be repeated. The
main facts, indeed, vv^ere already known soon after
Buckle's death. Well, then, may Mr. Glennie have
been thought to be one speaking with authority,
and his work considered, not only an important
contribution to Buckle's biography, but also as a
shrine wherein much of his conversation was
treasured up.
The book is a curious one. There is much in it
about " Oneness " and the " Ideal." We are told
that Christ and the chief priest and elders were in
the habit of talking Greek to each other ;' and we
are treated to such brilliant flights of eloquence
and imagination as the passage : " How Elysian
were life, all gathering for each other, on the strand
of our little star-island, the beautiful shells of
natural law, and bathing in the gleaming sea of the
' "Most pertinent is the question of the chief priests and elders
of the people — 'Ev Trota e'loycria raCra iroietr ; KoX rls croi eSuKef t^v
i^ovffiav TouTTj!' ; 'By what authority doest Thou these things? and
who gave Thee this authority ? ' And that question cannot now be
answered by a refusal to answer it — Ov5t iyu \f-yu tifxtv eV iroia
i^ovaia. Tavra iruiw — -' Neither tell I you by what authority I do
these things.' " See p. 298.
Appendix. 257
Infinite!"-' What is even more curious to any-
one who ever met Buckle, is the extraordinary fact
that in most cases Mr. Glennic seems to monopolize
the conversation, while Mr. Buckle only ventures
to put in occasionally a " Well ? " or " How so? "
or announce the fact that it is time for lunch. But
if the reader be indul^^^cnt he will pass this over,
considering that the unequal length of the
paragraphs may be due to the fact that Mr. Glennie
has had thirteen years to work up the arguments
he urged, while Mr. Buckle's interjections come in
very usefully to help Mr. Glennie along, and wind
him up again, as it were, when he has run down.
However, this indulgence cannot last long : for
looking more carefully at Mr. Buckle's reported
conversation, we feel irresistibly impelled to ex-
claim with the AtJiencBum, " In Mr. Buckle's life-
time he talked sense, but here he is made to talk
nonsense." Occasionally, indeed, we do come
across a sentence, a fragment, an oasis in the dreary
waste of words, which Buckle's friends would
recognize as his ; such as his quotation to Mr.
Glennie : " I can find you an argument, but not
understanding." And yet, notwithstanding this
natural deficiency, Mr. Glennie has undertaken to
2 I'a;;c 246.
VOL. II. S
258 Appendix.
supply Mr. Buckle with arguments — some from
passages in the Histofy of Civilization, some from
h.\s Misceliatieous and Posthujuotis Works, and others,
to judge from internal evidence, from his own
dreams.
How, it may be asked, could two boys, the one
but fifteen/the other but twelve, presume to doubt
Mr. Glennie's report of conversations — which were
not addressed to them, of which they took no notes,
which they frequently did not listen to, and could
rarely have remembered or even have understood .-'
The answer is very simple. Notwithstanding that
Mr. Glennie has waited until nearly all was
published that poor Buckle left behind him — not-
withstanding his assertion that he has " given all
Mr. Buckle's more important opinions in the very
words of his published writings,"^ he has not read
those writings so carefully but what he has attri-
buted to Buckle in many instances the exact
opposite of what he says " in his published writings,"
Such a proof of the worthlessness of Mr. Glennie's
record was, indeed, unnecessary for those who
knew Mr. Buckle at all intimately. Buckle's
sentiments, behaviour, and whole tone of conversa-
tion, as here given, are so utterly different from
' Preface, p. xiii.
Appendix. 259
those of the IJuckle they knew, that they saw at
once that Mr. Glcnnic was quite incompetent to
produce anything at all similar to what he really
must have said.
Mr. Buckle's conversations have been already
described in the body of this work ; they were
always interesting, whether a discussion of the
suviuiuvi bonuvi or mere badinage. Though vain
men were not always pleased to meet him, they
listened gladly enough, however they might inwardly
chafe at their inability to shake his argument.
" There was nothing awful about Buckle," says
a writer in the Atlantic Monthly; and he enjoyed a
joke, and made one, as well as anybody. He would
listen with deference to anybody who wished really
to arrive at the truth ; but " if,'' says Mr. Longmore/
" indeed he saw symptoms of conceit, or impudent
dogmatism, on the part of an opponent, he was
down upon him like a sledge-hammer : and I have
often pitied a poor wretch who had to submit to be
pounded to pieces by him, though I must say the
victim generally richly deserved it." " He never
prosed, and woe betide him who became prosy in
his company. In a single lucid sentence or two he
took up the threads of the arguments over which
* .Athenaum, zt^th January, 1S73, P- "4-
S 2
26o Appendix.
the proser was drivelling, and completely shut him
up, by clearly explaining to the company what
there seemed no prospect of his being able, in any
reasonable time, to make clear himself."
His conversations with Mr. Glennie were no
exceptions to this rule. Here was a young man,
whom Buckle thought to be clever and desirous of
knowledge : he intended to write a book on the
History of British Laiu ; he was going to publish
it in two years. Nothing could be more likely to
enlist Buckle's sympathy, nothing more powerful to
move him to point out the road most likely to lead
an earnest worker in the right direction. He very
early explained to Mr. Glennie how impossible it
was to write anything worth reading without having
previously studied all that had been written of
importance on the subject, and without having
formed and exercised oneself in a good style of
writing. He ought to devote at least ten years
more to preparation. As he sat inside his tent
with the boys at 'Ain Musa, the first evening of the
desert life^ he smiled^ and nodding towards the form
of Mr. Glennie, who stood outside in his red tar-
boosh, said, "The tall man in the red cap thinks he
is going to write a book in two years." Mr. Glennie's
first scientific work was published just ten years after.
Appendix. 261
Mr. Glcnnie seems to have omitted this conversa-
tion on his projected work, so we will go on to the
first that he does give : on Buckle's estimation
of the character of the Scotch. In this, Mr, Buckle
asks Mr. Glcnnie what he thinks it was so excited
the anger of his countrymen.* Mr. Glennie
answers, that Buckle should have read more of the
ballad literature of Scotland instead of the religious
publications exclusively. To this Buckle is made
to say nothing more than what has been published
long ago in his History. Mr. Glennie then observes
that he thinks " civilization in Scotland, and its
history, cannot be truly represented as a whole
without taking due account of both these parties (i.e.
the fanatical majority and the sceptical minority) ;
so, the fanatical Christian section cannot be truly
judged except — except it be justified." Buckle is
surprised, and Mr. Glennie goes on to explain, that
" these men had but drunk too deeply of dogmatic
Christianity," ^ and to that should be attributed
their intolerance, their belief in themselves, the
patience of their flocks, their assumption of, and the
public acquiescence in, their claim to be divinities
on earth ! And Buckle has no direct answer to
make to this ! He has nothing to say to the asser-
'- Page 104. • Page 113.
262 Appendix.
tion that these men are pardonable because they
only adopted literally, and believed without question,
the words of the Bible ! He allows Mr. Glennie,
according to Mr. Glennie's account, to slip on to
another question, which we shall presently notice,
and says nothing ! Why, pages of his History
might be quoted in answer ! He pardons them,
indeed, in that they kept alive the spark of liberty:
" One thing they achieved, which should make us
honour their memory, and repute them benefactors
of their species. At a most hazardous moment,
they kept alive the spirit of national liberty. * * *
This is their real glory, and on this they may well
repose. They were the guardians of Scotch free-
dom, and they stood to their post. Where danger
was, they were foremost." ' He pardons them for
that, and tells us that the real cause of their con-
duct was the circumstances under which they were
placed. To impute blame to them, would be to
blame the laws of nature. We do not, indeed,
blame a man because he is criminal ; we blame his
education. At the same time, we can hardly praise
him for his wickedness. He undoubtedly has a
certain amount of free-will, and he might have been
better. Nor, even if he has no free-will whatever,
^ History of Civilization, vol. ii. p, 258.
Appendix. 26
a
will our opinion be modified. We admire the well
made and strong, not the weak and the crippled.
Because the Scotch Covenanters did one good
thing, shall wc neglect to censure those things
they did which were bad } Shall we praise them
for their ignorance and intolerance, their asceticism
and tyranny, because they refused to allow any sort
of tyranny but their own ? However, undisturbed
by anything of this sort, the conversation is thus
continued : — ■
" B[uckle]. I have not yet happened to study
the history of Buddhism.
"A[uthor, i.e. Mr. Glennie]. No study can, I
think, be more instructive with reference to the
origin and character of Christianity as a great
historical phenomenon. For Buddhism is the
Eastern correlate of Christianity," &c., &c.
" B. Well, I fear that I must admit the truth of
your other allegation, and that it was really out of
expediency rather than principle that the toleration
of Christian communities historically arose.
" A. Not in Christianity, therefore, which ever
was — as to this day, wherever it has the chance, it
is — bitterly anti-tolerationist," &c., &c.*
Had Mr. Glennie read Mr. Buckle's Common
* I'jxgc 115.
\
264. Appendix.
Place Books, instead of merely looking into the
index, had he carefully looked through the History
of Civilization, had he even kept a catalogue from
the sale of Mr. Buckle's library, he might have
avoided so grave a mistake. In this catalogue may
be found the titles of numbers of books which
Buckle could not have read without studying
Buddhism ;^ while in the Common Place Book,
^ History of Civilization, vol. i. p. 11, note 7. From the Sale
Catalogue I select the following : —
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Calcutta. 8vo. : —
European Speculations on Buddhism. By B. H. Hodgson.
Vol. iii. pp. 382—387. 1834.
Further Remarks on M. Remusafs Revieiv of Buddhism. By B.
H. Hodgson. Vol. iii. pp. 425 — 431. 1834.
Notices on the DiJ^erent Systems of Buddhism, extracted from the
Tibetan Authorities. By A. C. Korosi. Vol. vii. p. 142, et seq.
Rroitw of n Histoire du Buddhism Indien, par E. Burnotf. By
Dr. E. Roer. Vol. xiv. Part II. pp. 783—809. 1845.
A Few Gleanings in Buddhism. By Colonel Low. Vol. xvii.
Part. II. pp. 591—618. 1S48.
Asiatic Researches, or Transactions of the Society Instituted in
Bengal, &c. Calcutta. 4to : —
On Egypt and other Countries, &^c., from the Ancient Books of the
Hindus. By Fr. Wilford. Vol. iii. art. xiii. pp. 412, et seq.
On Singhala, or Ceylon, and the Doctrines of Bhooda, fr07?i the
Books of the Sitighalaise. By Capt. Mahony. Vol. vii. art. ii.
pp. 32-56.
Introductory Remarks intended to have accompanied Capt. Ma-
hony'' s Paper on Ceylon and the Doctrines of Buddha, Cs^c. By J. H.
Harrington. Vol. viii. Appendix, p. 503, et seq.
On the Religion and Literature of the Burmas. By Fr. Buchanan.
Vol. vi. art. viii. pp. 163 — 308.
The Mahawanso, in Roman Characters, with the Translation
Appendix. 265
Buckle has several notes on Buddhism. And
Mr. Glennie must teach Buckle, forsooth, that
" Buddhism is the Eastern correlate of Chris-
tianity." The remark was made long ago by
Southey, who, though he did not see the entire
bearing of the subject, yet writes : " I think I
have discovered that one of the great oriental
mythologies was borrowed from Christianity — that
of Buddha, the Fo of the Chinese ; if so, what
becomes of their chronology?" and is copied into
Buckle's Common Place Book, as an instance of the
advance of religious knowledge in England in
1805.'" Moreover, if this is not enough, the whole
scope and tenor of Buckle's studies might have
taught Mr. Glennie better ; and further, since we
only have Mr. Glennie's word for the assertion, he
subjoined, and an Introductory- Essay on Pali Buddhistical Litera-
ture. By the Hon. G. Tumour. Ceylon. 1837. 4to.
Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society ot Great Britain and
Ireland. London. 410. : —
Sketch of Buddhism, derived from the Buddha Scriptures of Nipdl.
b B. II. Hodgson. Vol. ii. art. xiii. pp. 222 — 257, and Appendix,
pp. Ixxvii — Ixxxii.
On Buddha. By James Low. Vol. iii. art. iii. pp. 57 — 65.
A Disputation respecting Caste, by a Buddhist, &=c. By B. H.
Hodgson. Ibid., pp. 160 — 169.
Journal Asiatique. Paris. 8vo. 1822 — 1848. Contains many
papers on Buddhism.
Also other and general works.
»" Buckle's C. P. B., art. 1986. See also art. 1779.
266 Appe7idix.
must not complain if I too assert, that when
talking on Fichte to my mother he explained the
relation of Fichte's philosophy to Buddhism, and
said that the latter " was a most philosophical
creed." Even the beginning of Mr. Glennie's
sentence, " No study can, I think, be more in-
structive," is, with the exception of the " I think,"
extremely like Buckle's diction. And then Mr.
Buckle has, as he fears to admit, Mr. Glennie's
teaching that Christians only became tolerant
from expediency ! This is Mr. Buckle's own
teaching, as far as concerns the immediate cause.
But it is not the ultimate cause, which Buckle has
so frequently pointed out in his History;'' while,
as for Mr. Glennie's teaching, " Not in Christianity,
therefore, which ever was — as to this day, where-
ever it has the chance, it is — bitterly anti-tolera-
tionist," it only differs in being involved and
confused from Mr. Buckle's contemptuous reference
to that " meddling and intolerant spirit which, in
every age, has characterized ecclesiastical legisla-
tion."'^ Mr. Glennie then goes on to say, that the
principle of toleration is contrary to Christian
'^ Compare, e. g., chaji. viii. and p. 481, vol. i.
'2 See vol. i. pp 520, 521, 524 and vol. ii. p. 405, of the History
of Civilization.
Appendix. 267
beliefs, since it involves a dcMiial that belief in its
dogmas is necessary for salvation." And Buckle,
instead of pointinjij out that it does nothing of the
sort,'* is made to give the totally irrelevant answer
that the Covenanters were ascetic. Mr. Glcnnie, in
defending the bigotry and intolerance of the Cove-
nanters, finds it necessary to point out to Mr.
Buckle that this was due to their creed, and that
however pernicious this creed was, they should be
treated with honour for the self-sacrificing devotion
which has given them a place in the history of
Christian fanaticism. To which Mr. Buckle an-
swers, that he cannot excuse this fanaticism on
the score of its being the natural result of Chris-
tian teaching.'^ What an honourable position to
take — " a place in the history of Christian fanati-
cism!" Mr. Glennie deserves credit for his powers
of muddling what is so exceedingly clear in the
History of Civilizatioii. Buckle says that in keeping
alive Scottish liberty they did a real good. *' Herein,
they did a deed which should compensate for all
their offences, even were their offences ten times as
great ;" '* and shows that " the real cause of their
conduct was, the spirit of their age, and the pecu-
•3 Page 116. '* e.g. History of Ch'ilization, vol. i.
•* Page 118. '■' History oj CivilizaticH, ii. p. 259.
2 68 Appendix.
liarities of their position. None of us can be sure
that if we were placed exactly as they were placed
we should have acted differently. * * * In Scot-
land, the age was evil, and the evil rose to the sur-
face. * * * We should, in fairness to the Scotch
clergy, admit that the condition of their country
affords the best explanation of their conduct. * * *
Let us not be too forward in censuring the leading
actors in that great crisis through which Scotland
passed."'^ In this there is sense ; but where is the
honour of a place in Christian fanaticism t Is it
likely, too, that Buckle would have made such a
lame answer to Mr. Glennie's extraordinary propo-
sition, as merely to say that their fanaticism was
not the " natural fruits of Christian beliefs ? " He
would have said that the practice of Christianity is
the result of the state of civilization ; and, more-
over, that pure Christianity inculcates no monstrous
persecution. But instead, he only " courteously "
admits " that there was something in what " Mr.
Glennie has said." ^^
" Mr. Buckle set everything on style," says Mr.
Glennie, " attacht [sic] the greatest importance to
its cultivation, and declared that it so influenced
1' History of Civilization, vol. ii. pp. 257, 258, 259.
'^ Pilgrim Memories, p. 121.
Appaidix. 269
men that that alone would preserve one's fame.
Hence it was that the poets were so popular, and
that the influence of their pernicious fancies was
so great." And then he actually adds: '^ My
dissent from this rather strongly expressed opinion
as to the influence of the Poets only provoked a
more explicitly contemptuous denunciation of them,
except the two or three greatest, and particularly
Shakespeare and Molitire."'* I will merely quote a
few words from Buckle's History of Civilization : —
" In England, especially, there is, among physical
inquirers, an avowed determination to separate
philosophy from poetry, and to look upon them,
not only as different, but as hostile. Among that
class of thinkers, whose zeal and ability are beyond
all praise, and to whom we owe almost unbounded
obligations, there does undoubtedly exist a very
strong opinion, that, in their own pursuit, the
imagination is extremely dangerous, as leading to
speculations, of which the basis is not yet assured,
and generating a desire to catch too eagerly at
distant glimpses before the intermediate ground
has been traversed. That the imagination has this
tendency is undeniable. But they who object to it
on this account, and who would, therefore, divorce
iJ Page 169.
2 70 Appendix.
poetry from philosophy, have, I apprehend, taken
a too limited view of the functions of the human
mind, and of the manner in which truth is obtained.
There is, in poetry, a divine and prophetic power,
and an insight into the turn and aspect of things,
which, if properly used, would make it the ally of
science instead of the enemy. By the poet, nature
is contemplated on the side of the emotions ; by
the man of science, on the side of the under-
standing. But the emotions are as much a part
of us as the understanding ; they are as truthful ;
they are as likely to be right. Though their view
is different, it is not capricious. They obey fixed
laws ; they follow an orderly and uniform course ;
they run in sequences ; they have their logic and
method of inference. Poetry, therefore, is a part
of philosophy, simply because the emotions are a
part of the mind. If the man of science despises
their teaching, so much the worse for him. He has
only half his weapons; his arsenal is unfilled. * * *
And I can hardly doubt, that one of the reasons
why we, in England, made such wonderful dis-
coveries during the seventeenth century, was
because that century was also the great age of
English poetry. The two mightiest intellects our
country has produced are Shakespeare and Newton;
Appctidix. 2 7 1
and that Shakespeare should have preceded was, I
believe, no casual or unmeaning event. Shake-
speare and the poets sowed the seed, which Newton
and the philosophers reaped."^ And again he
says : — " To these cases of the application of what
may be termed the ideal method to the inorganic
world, I will add another from the organic depart-
ment of nature. Those among you w^ho arc
interested in botany, are aware that the highest
morphological generalization we possess respecting
plants, is the great law of metamorphosis, according
to which the stamens, pistils, corollas, bracts, petals,
and so forth, of every plant, are simply modified
leaves. It is now known that these various parts,
different in shape, different in colour, and different
in function, are successive stages of the leaf —
epochs, as it were, of its history. The question
naturally arises, who made this discovery } Was
it some inductive investigator ? * * * Not so.
The discovery was made by Gothc, the greatest
poet Germany has produced, and one of the
greatest the world has ever seen. And he made
it, not in spite of being a poet, but because he was
a poet."-^'
20 History of Chilization, vol. ii. pp. 502—504-
:> Lecture on the Injhuncc of Women on the Progress of Knowledge.
2 72 Appendix.
These few passages are sufficient, I should sup-
pose, to convince even Mr. Glennie that he has
made an eggregious blunder in attributing to Mr.
Buckle sentiments adverse to poetry ; and that he
might easily have corrected his memory or his
note-book in the course of the twelve years which
elapsed between this reported conversation and
the publication of it.'^ The fact is that Buckle was
constantly quoting poetry ; that he had all the best
parts of the poets by heart ; and that he read
Shakespeare, Homer, Gothe, Dante, Milton, Cor-
neille, and Moliere with ever-increasing admiration
and pleasure. No. What he probably did say to
Mr. Glennie was, that ideas alone would not pro-
duce a good style ; and that to acquire a good
style it was necessary to study the best authors, as
he himself had done. This was another lesson
kindly given to Mr. Glennie, which he would have
done well to profit by.
But Mr. Glennie is not content with attributing
a dislike to the poets to Mr, Buckle; he also makes
him deny the value of the imagination in science.
" I got into discussion with Mr. Buckle," he says,
22 It is not a Utile extraordinary that Mr. Glennie makes this
mistake, seeing that he admits having read Buckle's published
writings (Preface, p. xiii), and particularly mentions having heard
the lecture, from which he walked home, as he kindly informs the
world, "to the rooms I then had in Mount Street " (p. 102).
Appendix. 273
" on the necessary qualifications of the historian.
I maintained, and he, at length, partially admitted that,
for the truly great historian was requisite, not only
the analytic power of the philosopher, but the sym-
pathetic insight of the poet."" Now, if there was
any one thing which Buckle insisted on more than
another in all his writings, it was precisely this.
The whole of the lecture he gave, particularly
turned on it ; the History of Civilization teems
with passages deprecating the neglect of the
imagination, which he shows to be one of the
most important means of scientific investiga-
tion. After the passages which I have quoted
above, it is hardly necessary to quote any more ;
yet, since Mr. Glennie may fancy that this does not
apply to history, I will quote yet another passage
— but one from the many which might be quoted.
In his account of the Scotch intellect, he compares
Hume and Adam Smith : " But Hume, though a
most accomplished rcasoner, as well as a profound
and fearless thinker, had not the comprehensive-
ness of Adam Smith, nor had he that invaluable
quality of the imagination without which no one
can so transport himself into past ages as to realize
the long and progressive movements of society.
-' Pillar im Memories, p 314.
VOL. II. T
2 74 Appendix.
always fluctuating, yet, on the whole, steadily
advancing. How unimaginative he was, appears,
not only from the sentiments he expressed, but
likewise from many traits in his private life. It
appears, also^ in the very colour and mechanism of
his language ; that beautiful and chiselled style in
which he habitually wrote, polished as marble, but
cold as marble too, and wanting that fiery enthu-
siasm and those bursts of tempestuous eloquence,
which, ever and anon, great objects naturally in-
spire, and which rouse men to their inmost depths.
This it was, which, in his History of England, — that
exquisite production of art, which, in spite of its
errors, will be admired as long as taste remains
among us, — prevented him from sympathizing with
those bold and generous natures, who, in the seven-
teenth century, risked their all to preserve the
liberty of their country. His imagination was not
strong enough to picture the whole of that great
century, with its vast discoveries, its longings after
the unknown, its splendid literature, and, what was
better than all these, its stern determination to
vindicate freedom, and to put down tyranny. His
clear and powerful understanding saw these things
separately, and in their various parts, but could not
fuse them into a single form, because he lacked
Appendix. 275
that peculiar faculty which assimilates the past to
the present, and enables the mind to discern both
with almost equal ease. That Great Rebellion,
which he ascribed to the spirit of faction, and the
leaders of which he turned into ridicule, was but the
continuation of a movement which can be clearly
traced to the twelfth century, and of which such
events as the invention of printing, and the esta-
blishment of the Reformation, were merely succes-
sive symptoms. For all this, Hume cared nothing.
In regard to philosophy, and in regard to the
purely speculative parts of religious doctrines, his
penetrating genius enabled him to perceive that
nothing could be done, except by a spirit of fear-
less and unrestrained liberty. But this was the
liberty of his own class ; the liberty of thinkers,
and not of actors. His absence of imagination
prevented him from extending the range of his
sympathy beyond the intellectual classes, that is,
beyond the classes of whose feelings he was directly
cognizant. It would, therefore, appear, that his
political errors were due, not, as is commonly said,
to his want of research, but rather to the coldness
of his temperament. It was this which made him
stop where he did, and which gave to his works the
singular appearance of a profound and original
T 2
276 Appendix.
thinker, in the middle of the eighteenth century,
advocating practical doctrines, so illiberal, that, if
enforced, they would lead to despotism, and yet, at
the same time, advocating speculative doctrines, so
fearless and enlightened, that they were not only
far in advance of his own age, but have, in some
degree, outstripped even the age in which we live."^*
This is what Mr. Glennie calls opposing the
value of the imagination to the historian !
The next long conversation which Mr. Glennie
reports to us, is on the non- effect of moral truth on
the progress of civilization. What Buckle is made
to say, when there is anything at all in his remarks,
is merely a succession of extracts from the History
of Civilization ; and what Mr. Glennie says, is
chiefly remarkable for the way in which he utterly
misunderstands Buckle's position, and the way in
which he ventures to say things which, not only
Buckle, but any educated man, could easily refute.^*
However, Mr. Buckle was, as usual, woefully de-
^* Hist. Civil, vol. ii. pp. 458—460.
25 Mr. Glennie says, for example (pp. 198, 199), that Buckle
attributes the rise of every new religion to the acquirement of new
knowledge ; whereas, what Buckle did say was, that no new religion
advances civilization or influences the people, unless it is accom-
panied by an increase of knowledge. It is merely the old religion
with a new name, and the people act as they did before it was
introduced.
Appaidix. 277
fcated, and meekly says, " Well, I think it is time
for lunch." After lunch, however, Buckle takes
heart of grace, and renews the conversation, with
the new weapon of the state of morality in the
Middle Ages. " Mr. Buckle thought he had me
there," says Mr. Glennie." But how miserable was
his defeat ! Mr. Glennic was quite calm ; his
cheeks blanched not ; he firmly withstood the
shock ; and then quietly overwhelmed his antago-
nist with a speech of two or three pages in length.
It was Prince Giglio and Captain Hedzoff over
again. Mr. Glennie's argument was, of course,
quite unanswerable. Mr. Buckle had, indeed,
caught a Tartar when he " thought he had him
there," and could only slink away crestfallen to
the innermost recesses of his tent.
It is a remarkable thing, and speaks volumes for
Mr. Buckle's courage, that notwithstanding his re-
peated and almost invariable defeats, he should
still continue to wage an impotent war against his
invincible antagonist. The subject of the next con-
versation is the materialistic view of the Greatest
Happiness ;-' a subject in which Buckle was deeply
interested. In this the reader will notice with
'^^ Pilgrim Memon<rs, p. 200.
-7 //'/■</., pp. 206—219.
278 Appendix
astonishment, that, while Mr. Glennie delivers him-
self of some three hundred lines of print, Buckle is
unable to manage even one hundred. Perhaps
some Philistine, who has not read Mr, Glennie's
volume, may urge that Buckle, being a good writer
and conversationalist, might have made his sen-
tences more pithy, straight, and to the point ;
Avhile Mr. Glennie laboured on, like the horse in
the mill, ever circling, but never nearer to the point
around which he works. But if he reads, he will
find this theory untenable, for Buckle's style in this
conversation is no better than Mr. Glennie's. He
will find no trace of that manysidedness which is
so distinguishing a characteristic of Buckle's reason-
ing ; and which we may illustrate for instance by a
reference to the letter on J. S. Mill which he wrote
from Cairo.^^ The doctrine here attributed to him
is poorly materialistic. In it there is no room for
love. Buckle had no love ! No room for poetry.
No room for anything but cut and dried selfish-
ness ! There is, indeed, nothing new in this con-
versation, beyond the fact that Mr. Glennie under-
stands the subject no better than he does Mr.
Buckle.
It would be wearisome to the reader, and per-
-^ See p. 157 of this volume.
.Ippcndix. 279
haps it is not possible for mc, exhaustively to
criticize all the conversations which Mr. Glennie
has reported. We cannot read them without seeing
that he is deeply indebted to Buckle ; that the
barren soil has brought forth something it would
not otherwise have been capable of But the crop
is so intermingled with tares and weeds that it is
valueless. What I have just said of the last con-
versation is again applicable to the next : it is all
Mr. Buckle encouraging Mr. Glennie to state his
opinions, and no Mr. Buckle then stating his, and
examining where they differed. But that the con-
versation took place as Mi". Glennie writes it, I, for
one, do not believe. We may allow, for instance,
that Mr. Glennie quoted Aristotle in the original
Greek, as he before says that he quoted Socrates.-'
The thing is possible, though hardly probable.
But, that he had to add a translation for Buckle's
benefit 1 If the translation was meant for the
reader only, then why was it not put in a note, like
the translation to the quotation which he says he
made from Ilcgcl in the original German ?^° But
it will not do to pass all that follows over. There
-' Pili^rim Mimo>-us, pp. 75, 222.
^^ A translatiun, moreover, which is poor literally, and gram-
matically bad. Sec J'Up-im Mem. \>. 240, note.
28o Appendix.
is one^ in which Mr. Glennie professes to give an
account of a conversation he again had with Mr.
Buckle, on the relative influence of moral and
intellectual knowledge, and in which a German
clergyman who was travelling with another
party took part. Of the one, he merely says :
" Mr. Buckle with his Deism, which, notwith-
standing all his anti-theological zeal, he but ob-
scurely saw to be but a specially indefensible
theology, agreed with the German." Of himself
he says : " For myself, however, I thought with
Hume, the great founder of the Scottish School,
and the co-initiator with Kant of a new period of
European Philosophy. * * *• Nor, as I maintained,
was this a mere open question. * * * As to the
origin of this hypothesis, it is to be found in the
earlier stage of men's conceptions of Causation,
which Hume (in that profound theory of ' The
Natural History of Religion,' of which Comte's Law
of the Three Periods was little more than a formu-
lising) w'as the first adequately to distinguish as the
Theological Stage, in its three progressive periods
of Vulgar Polytheism (called by Comte ' Fetich-
ism '), Polytheism, and Monotheism." "'
The reader will bear in mind that Mr. Glennie is
^' Pilgrim Memories, pp. 250 — 252.
Appendix. 281
telling this to Mr. Buckle, and then will turn with
me to the History of Civilization, volume one, page
two hundred and twenty-nine, note twenty-two, and
read as follows, on Hume's method : " The historical
facts he introduces are merely illustrations ; as any
one will see who will read 'The Natural History of
Religion ' in Humes Philos. Works, Edinb., 1826,
vol. iv. pp. 435 —513. I may mention that there
is a considerable similarity between the views ad-
vocated in this remarkable essay and the religious
stages of Comtes PhilosopJiie Positive ; for Hume's
early form of polytheism is evidently the same as
M. Comte's fetichism, from which both these writers
believe that monotheism subsequently arose, as a
later and more refined abstraction. That this was
the course adopted by the human mind, is highly
probable, and is confirmed by the learned researches
of Mr. Grotc. See his History of Grceee, vol. i.
pp. 462, 497, vol. v. p. 22. The opposite and more
popular opinion, of monotheism preceding idolatry,
was held by most of the great earlier writers, and is
defended by many moderns, and among others by
Dr. W'hewell {Bridgcivater Treatise, p. 256), who
expresses himself with considerable confidence : see
also Letters from Warburton to Hurd, p. 239. Com-
pare ThirlwaWs History of Greeee, vol. i. p. 1S3.
282 Appendix.
Lond. 183 5, with 'einige Funken des Monotheismus'
of Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernimft, in Kanfs
Werke, vol. ii. p. 455."
The next conversation is on the question of
Hereditary Genius, which Buckle had justly said
was not proved. In this conversation Mr. Glennie
does not make him say anything new ; but he says
in the course of it : — " And with characteristic
frankness, he pointed to the phrenological indica-
tions of his own head— his forehead having been,
before he became bald, not even apparently by any
means very high or broad ; and yet, — but it was the
circumstances of his life." ^*
This passage is " not even apparently by any
means very" clear, or grammatical. What does
Mr. Glennie mean } That Buckle having lost his
hair had gained a "phrenological indication " .'' That
having lost his hair his forehead suddenly bulged
out and became " apparently by every means very
high and broad " .'' Or does he mean to say that his
forehead was an imposture, and looked high only
because he was bald } What were the " circum-
stances of his life " .■* To bewilder us still more,
Mr. Glennie adds the following mysterious note
after the word ' frankness ' in this passage : — " Com-
32 Pit grim Memories, p. 339.
Appcjidix. 28
J
pare anecdote above-quoted from the Atlantic
Monthly." What anecdote ? The Atlantic Monthly
says nothing whatever on the question. As it
happens, I do recollect the circumstance to which
Mr. Glennie thus obscurely alludes, though I cannot
unravel the mysteries of his report. In talking on
phrenology, Buckle, as a kind of argument that
working the brain did raise the forehead, pointed
to his own, and told Mr. Glennie that as a youth he
had had a very low forehead, whereas now it was
patent to all (and may be seen by the only photo-
graph ever taken of him) that his forehead was re-
markably high and broad. Let the reader under-
stand this from Mr. Glennie's report, if he can.
What is the value of conversations recorded as
are these ^ They give us no new knowledge, for
all that is of value in them had been already pub-
lished before Mr. Glennie wrote. They give us not
only no true idea of what Buckle was in conversa-
tion, but they do give us a most wrong and harm-
ful and untrue idea. Buckle is used simpl)' as a
peg upon which Mr. Glennie may hang his own
views ; Buckle begs explanations, and Mr. Glennie
explains ; Buckle says 'how so.-*' and Mr. Glennie
adds some more explanation. Look at the con-
versation related on pages 345 — 364 : would not
284 Appendix.
anyone, unacquainted with Buckle's works, put him
down as a fool ? Buckle is always wandering from
the subject : logical Mr. Glennie is always bring-
ing him back. Buckle seeks to escape by turning
the conversation : '^ victorious Mr. Glennie, with
true magnanimity allows it. Buckle has the mis-
fortune to utter the word " toleration ; " but Mr.
Glennie is instantly down upon him with : — " I ex-
ceedingly dislike the word. Toleration, properly
speaking, can be, and has in fact historically
been, offered only by those who endeavoured to
carry off their inability to suppress, by an insolent
assumption of superiority in permitting. Letting
the word, however, pass, my views," &c., &c.^^ As
if Mr. Glennie ever dared to talk like this !
or as if Buckle, despite his marvellous patience,
would have allowed so insolent an "assumption of
superiority of permitting ! " Mr. Glennie here talks
some four hundred lines ; while Buckle does not
take even one hundred and fifty. Mr. Glennie
quotes a passage from the Greek Testament, and
translates it for Buckle's benefit.^^ Therefore we
must draw the conclusion that Buckle did not know
Greek, while Mr. Glennie knew Aristotle's works,
Socrates, and the New Testament, by heart. He is
33 Page 353. '* Page 350. '^'-^ Page 363.
Appendix. 285
indeed a wonderful man, with a wonderful memory ;
a memory, however, which nevertheless is strangely
unable to retain Ruckle's conversation. Look
again at the matter of these conversations. Mr.
Glennie is allowed to go on with but half answers
from Buckle, while any one with even a tolerable
acquaintance with Buckle's habit of thought could
double them. All that Mr. Glennie says here
could have been easily refuted out of the History
of Civilization.
At last, Buckle — tired of Mr. Glcnnie's arguments
about " Oneness " and ' Mutual Determination,"
and endeavours to prove from his inner conscious-
ness the great effect of moral laws on the progress
of civilization — told him that if he wanted to prove
it, he must do so historically ; and offered him all
the assistance in his power. So magnificent an
offer was of course accepted with proper gratitude
by Mr. Glennie, who said : " Of course I shall ac-
knowledge the assistance from you in my preface,"
or words to that effect. But Buckle answered that
he need do nothing of the sort : " I have made my
reputation ; you have yours still to make." I have
seen no mention of this conversation in Mr. Glennie's
Pilgrim Mcuiorics.
If these conversations are valueless, there yet
286 Appendix.
remains a good deal of description of scenery,
which may be interesting, though it cannot, of
course, differ very much from the descriptions in
Murray's Guide, if both be true. But the reader
will find that the resemblance is even greater than
he would at first have been led to expect, as though
" Murray " had had a prophetic view of what Mr.
Glennie was going to write, and had forestalled
him. I put a few passages side by side : —
Mr. Porter, in ''Murray's Mr. Glennie, in " Pilg.
Gtdde," piiblisJied 1 868. Mem.,'' published 1 875.
"Damascus and its "And suddenly here
plain burst at once upon there bursts on us a
our view. The change wondrous scene. Below
is so sudden, so unex- us, at the foot of the bar-
pected, that it seems like ren mountains, stretched,
somegloriousvision. * * * far as the eye, in the clear
This distance lends en- Eastern air, could see, a
chantment to the view, vast desert. But in its
* * * Tapering minarets centre was a long strip,
and swelling domes, wide towards the north,
tipped with golden cres- and narrowing south-
cents, rise up in every wards, of the most glo-
direction from the con- riously rich vegetation,
fused mass of white ter- Amid the deep green
Appendix.
287
raced roofs ; while in
some places their glitter-
ing tops appear above
the deep green foliage,
like diamonds in the
midst of emeralds * * *
Away on the south the
eye follows * * * a long
green meadow,stretching
from near the mouth of
the gorge to the western
side of the city. The
Barada winds through
it * * *" (p. 435)-
And again : —
Mr. Porter.
" Napoleon called it
the key of Palestine.* * *
The Phoenician Accho
took the Greek name
Ptolcmais.* * * In 1229
it became the chief scat
of the Kingdom of Jeru-
salem, and the head-
foliage was a confused
mass of white terraced
roofs. Over these rose
countless swelling domes
and tapering minarets,
glittering,herc and there,
like diamonds set with
emeralds. And outside
this Paradise-city, and
between it and the de-
sert, lay a wide and
beautiful meadow, in the
midst of which gleamed
a winding-stream " (p.
450).
Air. Glennic.
" Our first day's jour-
ney was down to the sea
at Akka— the ' Key of
Palestine,' as it was
called by Napoleon — St.
Jean d'Acre. * * * Soon
after, we passed through
the gates, and rode along
2S8 Appendix.
quarters of the Templars, streets that occupy the
the Teutonic Knights, site of those of the Phoe-
and the Knights of St nician Accho and Greek
John. The latter took Ptolemais ; of what was
the title of St. John of once the chief place of
'Akka ; which, in the the Mediaeval kingdom
French orthography, St. of Jerusalem ; the head-
Jeaii </'^cr^, became the quarters of the Knights
current appellation of of the Temple, the Teu-
the city in Europe. The tonic Knights, and the
city was now a Babel of Knights of St. John
tongues, races, and rulers, (from whom the town
Gibbon well remarks has its modern name of
* * * ' a mournful and St. Jean d'Acre) ; the
solitary silence prevailed general gathering-place
along the coast which of the Crusaders ; and
had so long resounded the seat of those con-
with the world's de- gresses in which all the
bate'" (pp. 355 — 357). princes of Europe met,
when these now-silent
shores ' resounded,' as
again they may, 'with
the world's debate.' —
GiddoUyDecVme and Fall,
vo/. vii., close of chapter
on ' Crusades.' "
Appendix. 289
I have no more space for any further illustration
of this curious identity between the versions of
Mr. Porter and Mr. Glennie. But the curious
reader may readily find some more f6r himself, by
examining " Murray" whenever he comes across a
descriptive passage in the Pilgrim Memories.
There remains but one more subject, which Mr.
Glennie will doubtlessly be grateful to mc for call-
ing attention to. " I was, I beh'eve," says Mr.
Glennie, " myself the first to make any inquiry
about Mr. Buckle's grave. In answer to a letter
of mine, Dr. Barclay thus wrote, under date Beirut,
November 24, 1864: — 'I also wrote at the same
time to Mr. Rogers, H.B.M. Consul at Damascus,
asking, as you desired, for a pencil sketch of the
grave ; and in reply was informed that not even a
stone or mark of any kind indicated the spot of
interment ! Shortly afterwards, Mr. R. came on
to Beirut, when I spoke to him on the subject, and
showed him your letter.' Towards the close of
1865, Mr. Rogers was visited by his sister. And
through her zeal it was that, in the autumn of 1866,
nearly four years and a half after his death, the
crrave of Mr. Buckle was, at length, marked by a
simple monument.""
^•^ Pilgrim Mem. \>. 468.
VOL. II. U
290 Appendix.
Now, I do not know what impression this passage
leaves on the mind of the reader ; but on my first
perusal it appeared to me that Mr. Glennie claimed
for himself the honour of having directed the atten-
tion of Miss Rogers to the fact that there was no
memorial marking Buckle's last resting-place. No
doubt Mr. Glennie did not suppose that such a
construction could be put upon his words, and
will be only too happy to have the matter clearly
set forth. The truth is, he had not the remotest
connection with it. He no doubt did write a letter
to Dr. Barclay asking for the particulars of Buckle's
death, and no doubt asked at the same time for a
sketch or photograph of the tomb which he, as
every one else, supposed was there, for the pur-
pose of ornamenting his Pilgrim Memories. Dr.
Barclay wrote back to say there was none ; and
there the matter dropped. This was in November,
1864. Towards the end of 1865, Miss Rogers
went out to join her brother, who was Consul at
Damascus; and on February 8th, 1866, accom-
panied him to the Protestant cemetery, to visit the
grave of a near relative. She went with the full
expectation of also seeing Buckle's tomb ; and was
greatly surprised, and very much shocked, to find
nothing but a rounded mound over his remains.
Appendix. 291
" Buckle's grave is not far from X 's," she writes
home two days later, " but it is unmarked ! I am
surprised that no orders have been given for a
stone to mark the resting-place of such a man ! 1
should like to receive instructions from some of
his admirers to have a simple slab put over the
spot, before people forget where it is. It would
not cost much, for I would draw the inscription,
and see it properly cut." This letter was sent by
Mrs. Rogers to her friend Major Bell, who knew
Buckle well from his writings, and greatly admired
him. He also was astonished to see " that there
was not a stone to mark the place of Henry
Buckle's remains, and at once took an extract
from " her " letter, and communicated with two of
Buckle's most intimate friends, Mr. John Dickinson
and Mr. Henry Huth. Both of these were sur-
prised and shocked to hear of such neglect." Mr.
Henry Huth wrote at once to Mrs. AUatt, Buckle's
only s.urviving sister, and she at once wrote in
reply : — " Thank you so much for so kindly writing
to me on a subject which you know deeply interests
me. After my dear brother's death I had nothing
to do with the settling of affairs, but was certainly
under the impression that a .stone had been .set."
She gratefully accepted Miss Rogers' kind proposal
U 2
292 Appendix.
to put up a tomb, at the same time sending the
English epitaph. This was communicated through
Major Bell to Miss Rogers at Damascus, who wrote
back as follows : — " Thank you heartily for helping
me to fulfil my wish with regard to the grave of
Henry Buckle. I looiild NOT under any circum-
stances have left Damascus with his last resting-
place unmarked and unprotected ; but of course it
was more consistent that his sister should have the
opportunity and privilege of dedicating a stone to
his memory, and of giving instructions about it.
Immediately on my return from Baalbec I went
to the stone-mason's bazaar, and visited shop after
shop, carefully inspecting the work in marble and
stone then in hand, that I might judge of the com-
parative skill of the workmen, and of the kind of
design they would be most likely to carry out
satisfactorily. I have not quite decided about it
yet ; but my chief object will be to ensure (as far as
the nature of things will permit) the durability of
the monumejit. I shall try to interest one of my
native friends here about it, that the grave may be
kept in order after my departure from this city."
The tomb was finished by 30th October, 1866 ;
and up to the year 1871, or 1872, Mr. Glennie, I
understand, had not even heard that there was
Appendix. 293
one ; but, happening to see a photograph of it in
Major Bell's copy of the History of Civilization, he
wrote on the 26th Februar)', ivS/s.to Mrs. Bell : " I
remember seeing in Major Bell's copy of Buckle's
'History of Civilization' a photograph of his
tombstone. I should be much obliged if )our
friend Miss Rogers would kindly give the par-
ticulars of the time, circumstance, &c., of the
erection of the tombstone." This Miss Rogers
did ; and the account I have given, showing that
to Miss Rogers is entirely and solely due the honour
of the first initiation, as the subsequent erection
of the tombstone, is no doubt what Mr. Glennie
intended to convey to his readers ; but he has been
unfortunate in his choice of language, and this
explanation therefore became necessary.
I have now done with Mr. Glennie's Pilgriui
Memories ; and trust I shall never have to resume
so disagreeable a theme. If he feel aggrieved at
my treatment of his work, he has only himself to
blame. The publication of these " memories,"
made it incumbent on every friend — nay, on every
human being who honours justice and is able to
wield a pen — to defend Buckle from the insinuations
which they convey ; and shall not I, who loved
him, vindicate his memory? In so doing, I have
294 Appendix.
restricted myself to the bare proof of the worth-
lessness of Mr. Glennie's book ; and I sincerely
hope that I may never be compelled to enlarge on
a subject which I have taken up with reluctance,
and finish with relief.
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„ vii. p. 19, „ 158 (2318) for 6th July „
„ „ pp. 40, 41, „ 159 (2319) „ 13th „ „
» » PP- 65, 66, „ 160 (2320) „ 20th „
„ „ p. 80, „ 161 (2321) „ 27th „
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304 Bibliography.
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[IIiiKO.iaa Co-ioBBCBa -Mn.i.ib, Konii, n BoK.ib, /Kchckomi. ronporfe.
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Review, Boston, U.S., 8vo, vol. cxv. pp. 65 — 103, No.
236, for July, 1872 ; art. iv.
Mr. Buckle and the Aufklarung." In the Journal of
Speculative Philosophy. St. Louis, Mo., U.S., 8vo.
vol. ix. pp. 337—400, No. 4, for October, 1875.
I
(C
Bibliography. 307
Times, the, London: " Hucklt-'s History of Cnjuzaiion in
England." P. 5, No. 22,810, for 13th October, 1857.
Ibid. : " Mr. Buckle's New Volume." 1st art , pp. 8, 9,
No. 24,016, for 20th August, 1861 ; 2nd art., p. 8, No.
24.018, for 22nd August, 1861 ; 3rd art., p. lo, No.
24.019, for 23rd August, 1 861.
'iablet, the: '' IJuckle's History of Civilization." F. 570,
September 7th, 1861.
Taylor, Helen : Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of
Henry Thomas Buckle, with a Biographical Notice.
3 vols. 8vo. London, 1872.
Tyrwhitt, Rev. R. St. John: "Sinai." Pp. 325—356. "f
Vacation Tourists and Notes of Travel in 1862-3.
Edit, by Fr. Gallon. London and Cambridge, 1864,
8vo.
Universe, the; London : "A History of Civilization in Eng-
land." I St art., p. 6, No. 38, for 24th August, 1861 ;
2nd art., p. 3, No. 39, for 31st August, 1861.
Viirlandcr, F. : " Englischc Gcschichtsphilosophie." In the
Preussische Jahrbiiche. \'o\. ix. pp. 501 — 527, 5tc Heft
for May, 1S62. Berlin, 8vo.
Wallace, Mackensic : RussU- 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1877.
Weiss, John : Life and Coirespondence of Theodore Parker.
2 vols. 8vo. London, 1863.
Westminster Review, New Series. London, 8vo. : " History
of Civilization in England." -Art. iv. vol. xii. pp. 375"
399, No. 24, for October, 1857.
/bid. : '' History of Civilization in England." .Art. vii. vol.
.\x. pp. 187 — 207, -\o. 39, for July, 1861.
SPECIAL CHESS BIBLIOGRAPH V.
Athenaeum, London, 4to : " Copy of a Letter written to the
City of London Chess .Magazine, by M. v. dor Lisa.
1*. 262, No. 2469, for 20th February, 1875.
.\ J
3o8 Dibliography .
Bird, H. E. : Chess Masterpieces, &c., &c. London, 8vo.,
1875-
Game No. Pag^es Played in Between
62 59, 60 1857 Buckle and Bodcn.
67 63, 64 1 85 1 „ Loewenthal.
68 64,65 1851 „ Loewenthal.
69 65,66 1851 „ Schulder.
70 66, 67 1849 „ Williams.
Chess Player, the : edited by Kling^and Horwitz, London,
3851 — 53, i^mo.
Vol. i. p. 112, No. xiv. for October i8th, 185 1.
Vol. iii. pp. 2, 3, No. lii., for July loth, 1852.
„ i. {sic) p. 34, No. iii., for August 28th, 1852.
Chess Player's Chronicle, edited by Howard Staunton, &c.
London, 8vo., 1841 — 61.
First Series :
Vol. iv. 1843, PP- 195? 196? 198, 201, 266.
„ vi. 1846, „ 130, 198, 235, 236, 331-335; 360,
362.
„ vii. 1846, „ 46, 53, 54, 55, 213, 214, 349, 407, 408,
410.
„ viii. 1847, „ 50, 97, 257, 353, 368,
„ ix. 1849, „ 46,260, 303, 327.
,, X. 1849, „ 65,67, 68, 113, 115, 143, ]45, 184,
186, 228, 230.
„ xi. 1850, „ 76, 112, 174, 347-
„ xii. 1851, „ 6, 266, and 30, 62, 81, 86, 88. 89, 91,
94, 247, 248, 281, 373-
„ xiii. 1852, „ 278.
New Series :
Vol. ii. 1854, pp. 212, 240, and 155, 180.
„ iii. 1855,,, 353, and 162, 204, 236.
„ iv. 1856, „ 20, and 93,94, 125.
Third Series :
Vol. i. 1859, p. 180.
Chess Player's Magazine, thcr London, 8vo. : "Mr. Henry
Thomas llucklc' \'ijI. ii. |t|). i —45, No. 8, for 1 cbruary,
1864.
City of London Chess Magazine, the, London, 8vo. ; Kdit.
by \V. N. Potter. Vol. i., 1875, PP- 165—168, 288.
Field, the, London, fol. :
No. 4, for Jan. 22, 1S53, vol. i. y. u\, l>Lt\v. Hucklcand liird.
.. 5. .. Ja"- 29, 1853, ,, i. J). 77, ,. „
,,30, ,, July 23,1853, „ ii. p. 82 lJanics(2).
,,32, ,, Aug. 6, 1S53, ,, ii. p. 140, ,. (2).
„ 37. .. Sept. ID, 1S53, ,, ii. p. 261,
,, 48, ,, Nov. 26, 1853, „ ii. p. 524,
,, 65, ,, Mar. 25, 1854, ,, iii. p. 275.
Illustrated London News, the, London, fol. ;
No. 148, fur ^Lir. i, 1845, ^"' ^' V- '4-<' '"' '''"'klc ajid
Kennedy.
,, 182, ,, on. 25, 1S45,
,, 220, ,, July 18, 1S46,
„ 287, ,, Oct. 30, 1S47,
„ 368, „ Apr. 28, 1849,
,, 371, ,, May 19, 1849,
M 436, „ July 13, 1850,
,, 464, ,, Jan. II, 1851, ,, xviii. p. 32, Committee of Cheis
Tournament.
,, 471, ,, Feb. 22, 1S51, ,, xviii. p. 163,
,, 4S9, ., May 31, 1S51, ,, .wiii. p. 4S1,
,, 510, ,, .\ug. 16, 1851, ,, xi.x. p. 219, bet. Buckle ami
Loewental.
„ 5>3. .. Aug. 30, 1S51, ,, xix. p. 267,
M 531. .. Nov. 29, 1851, ,, xix. p. 643, Anglo-Fr. Match.
>• 535. •. •'^■<-- '3. 1851, ,, xix. p. 707, Clames with
Loewental.
» 538. .. l'*-'^" -7- i^*^?'. .• ^i'^- I'. 771, bet. lUickleand
Loewental.
.. 558, ,. May 8, 1852, vol. XX. p. 3S3, Review on .Staun-
ton's Tournament.
.. ^yo. ., "^ejit. iS, 1S52, ,, x\i. p. 219, l>et. Huckleand
.Schuldcr.
Kennedy, Capt. H. A.: " .Mr. lUicklc as a Chess Player." In
vii.
267,
• »
ix.
42,
A nun.
\i.
283.
.Medley.
xiv.
274.
C.F. .Smith.
xiv.
323.
Kicscritzky.
xvii.
52,
C.F.Smith.
o
I o BibliograpJiy.
the Westminster Chess Club Papers, vol. vi. pp. 23—25,
No. 62, for June, 1873, London, 4to.
Lasa V. Heydebrandt u. d. : " Henry Thomas Buckle." In
the Schachzeitung. Leipzig, 8vo. Pp. 194, 195, Nos. 7
and 8, for July and August, 1862.
" A Letter on the Chess Play of Henry Thomas Buckle."
In the City of London Chess Magazine. London, 8vo.
Vol. i. p. 288. 1875.
Ibid.: In the Athenaeum. London, 410. P. 262, No.
2469, for 20tli February, 1875.
La Regence, Journal des £checs. Paris, 8vo. (Successor
to La Palamede).
First Series :
No. I, for Jan., 1849, pp. 28— y:), Gamebetw. Buckle and
Kieseritzky,
„ 2, „ Feb., 1849, pp. 50— 53, » (2)
„ 3, „ Mar., 1849, pp. 80—84, „ (2)
,, 4, „ Apr., 1849, pp. 109— III, „
„ 8, „ Aug., 1 85 1, pp. 241-246, „ (2)
Second Series :
No. 2, for February, 1856, pp. 53, 54, 328, betw. Buckle and
Tassinari.
Schachalnianach, Erste (and only) Jahrgang. Leipzig, i2mo.,
1846. Pp. 172, 173, Game between Buckle and Capt.
Kennedy.
Schachzeitung, In Monatlichcn Heften herausgegeben von
der Berliner Schachgesellschaft. Berlin, 8vo. :
No. 3, for Sept., iSzi.6, pp. 87—89, Game betw. Buckle and
V. d. Lasa.
„ 6, „ Dec, 1846, p. 183, Letter from Kieseritzky.
„ 8, „ Aug., 1848, p. 305, Bledow on Buckle in Berlin,
and game with Carisien.
„ II, „ Nov., 1855, pp. 348,349, Game betw. Buckle and
Tassinari.
Schachzeitung, Gegriindet von der Berliner Schachgesell-
schaft, Organ fiir das gesammte Schachleben. Leipzig,
8vo.:
Bibliography. 3 i i
Nos. 7 and 8, July and August, 1862, pp. 194, 195, Notice
of Buckle's death, by v. d. Lasa.
Ditto, pp. 237, 238, Games with Kiescritzky, Smith, and
Loevveiuhal.
Staunton, Howard : The Chess Player's Handbook. London,
i2mo., 1875 :
Game between Buckle and Capt. Kennedy, pp. 74, 75.
„ Harrwilz, pp. 125, 126.
The Chess Player's Companion. London, i2mo., 1875 :
Two games between Buckle and Staunton, pp. 167 — 169.
The Chess Tournament, a Collection of Games played at
this celebrated assemblage, &c. London, i2mo., 1873:
Match between Buckle and Loewenthal, pp. 225 — 242.
Williams, Elijah: Horae Divaniana;, a selection of one
hundred and fifty Original Games at Chess, by leading
Masters, principally played at the Grand Divan, &c.,
&c. London, i2mo., 1852 :
Between Buckle and Brown, Games No. 2, 7, 10 — 13, 24.
Simons, „ 32 — 54, 64, 68.
Smith, „ 69, TJ, 78.
Maude, „ 75.
Williams, „ 99 — 102.
Kepping, „ 116.
INDEX.
AARON'S tomb, ii. 20S.
Abytlos, ii. 155.
Achmet's divorce, ii. 207.
Adoption, ii. 77.
'Ain el Ilaramiych, ii. 229.
'Ain Musa, ii. 1S8.
Akaba, ii. 200.
Akka, ii. 236.
Alexandria, ii. 119.
Ale.xandroschene, ii. 236.
Alison's //w/^'^j, ii. 173, 174.
Allatt, death of Robert, ii. 27.
Ambition, i. 2, 19, 39 ; ii. 26.
America, proposed visit to, i.
155; ii. 177 ; the state of, i.
202, 203; ii. 13, 167, 1 68,
1 76 ; copyright law of, ii. 179 ;
the History of Civiliziit'wn in,
i. 141, 153 ; ii. 90, 9'-
Ancestry of Buckle, i. 2, 3.
Animals, kindness to, ii. 75, 86,
199.
Antiquities, collection of, ii.
129, 150, et scq., 163.
Arab vengeance, ii. 195.
Arts, relative idealization of the,
i. 15, 16; advance of the, ii.
43. 44-
Assouan, ii. 146 — 150.
Athenrcum, election to the, i.
251, 252.
Austrian customs, i. 32.
Avarice, charge of, i. 45, 46 ;
difference between, and par-
simony, ib. ; ii. 127.
BETHEL, ii. 229.
Bethlehem, ii. 21 1, 226.
Beyrout, ii. 238 ; prosecution of
Hassan at, ii. 241, 242.
Biography is not history, i. 241.
Birmingham, manners in, ii. 104.
IJirth of Buckle, i. 3.
Blackheath, stay at, ii. \}„dscq.
Blasphemy, punishment for, i.
298,299. 311.
Blind, happiness of the, L 88.
Bodin, and the History of Civi
lization, i. 236, 237, 239, 240
Books, purchases of, i. 27, 44
Buckle's rate of reading, i
18, 37 ; the method of read
ing. >• 37. 3S ; the love of,
i. 124.
Bossuet, and the History of
Civilization, i. 237.
314
Index.
Boulogne, illness at, i. 29 ; stays
at, i. 125 ; ii. 26.
Bowyear, correspondence with
Mrs., i. 137, 275, 282, 295 ;
ii. 22, 23, 26, 36, 86, 109,
139-
Brighton, stays at, i. 10, 306, et
seq. ; ii. 10, li, 32, et scq., 69.
Buckle, Sir Cuthbert, i. 2.
Buckle, Mrs., her Calvinistic
views, i. 9, 10 ; character of,
i. 79 ; eagerness to see her
son's book, i. 128; the dedi-
cation to, ib. ; ill-health of,
i. 36, 54, 65, 66, 94, 95, 96,
99, 100, loi, 103, 104, 122,
124, 127, 134, 137, 140, 261,
262, 265, 270, 274, 275 ; ap-
proaching death of, i. 282,
288 ; death of, i. 289, 290 ;
her son's grief, i. 290, et seq. ;
ii. 26, 80, 97, 98, 99, 108.
Buckle, Thomas H., i. 3, 7, 9.
Buddhism, a necessaiy study for
theologians, ii. 102.
CAIRO, stay at, ii. 125, 156,
et seq.
Camel-riding, ii. 191.
Capel, correspondence with Mr.,
i. 141, 151, 153, 318; ii. 8,
21, 36, 71, 80, 82.
"Carolside, stay at, ii. 84, 88,
III.
Carshalton, stay at, ii. 31, et seq.,
71, et seq.
Catholic, Roman, Ciiurch,
Comte's estimate of the, i.
224, 227 ; compared with the
I'roteslaut, ii. 202, 203.
Charily of Buckle, i. 45, 46,
249 ; ii. 24, 69.
Charles I., fragment on, not
extant, i. 28.
Chess, Buckle's skill in, i. 13,
23-26, 31, 32, 105 ; great,
tournament of 185 1, i. 56, et
seq. ; championship, i. 62 ; at
Dublin, i. 67, 68.
Children, love of, ii. 16, 17, 18,
51, 72, 76, 105 ; adoption of,
ii. 77.
Clairvoyance, ii. 103.
Cobras in the desert, ii. 200,
210.
Coleridge, Judge, and Pooley's
case, i. 300 — 322; ii. i — 9, 19.
Coleridge, the answer of Mr.
J. D., i. 308, 318, 319, 321 ;
ii. 7 ; publication of Buckle's
reply to, ii. 8.
Colour and fonn, i. 33 ; ii. 141.
Comte, Augt., how to read, i.
8f ; his want of practical
knowledge, i. 49 ; his Lelief
in phrenology, i. 65 ; igno-
rance of political economy,
i. 174, 230; compared with
Buckle, i. 223—233, 246,
248, fiote.
Condorcet on morals and civi-
lization, i. 248, note.
Conversational powers of Buckle,
i. 69, 70; ii. 42, 52, et seq.,
69, 106, 164, 167, et seq., 187,
201, 202.
Copyright in America, ii. 179.
Cornwall, tour in, i. 150.
Corporal punishment, ii. 75> '°4>
105.
Correspondence of Buckle with
Mrs. Bowyear, i. 137, 275,
JndiX.
v50
282, 295 ; ii. 22, 23, 26, 36,
86, 109, 139; with Mr.
Capel, i. 141, 151, 153,318;
ii. 8, 21, 36, 71, 80, 82; with
Mr. Grey, i. 260 ; with Mrs.
Grey, i. 80, 82, 84, 98, 104,
105, 109, no, 119, 125, 134,
139, 261, 280, 285, 294 ; ii.
I, 10, 18, 33, 84; with Mis.
Grotc, ii. 67, 70, no; with
with Lord Hatherley, i. 143,
145 ; with Mrs. Hutchinson,
ii. 29; with Mr. Huth, ii.
30, 31, 157, 164, 197; with
Mrs. Huth, ii. 49, 59, 88,
no, n3, 121, 125, 131, 147,
156, 197, 212, 239; with the
sons of Mr. Huth, ii. 32 ;
with Mr. Ch. Kingsley, i.
305 ; with Mri. Mitchell, ii.
29, 62, 63, 65, 69, 81 ; with
Mr. Parker, i. n2, n4, n6,
n8, 129, 131, 132, 150, 254,
256, 270, 272, 283, 284, 304,
306, 318, 321 ; ii. 2, 4, 5, 7,
19, 20 ; with Mr. Theodore
Parker, i. 154 ; ii. 13 ; with
Miss .Shirreff, i. 81, 84, 86,
87, 88, 89, 93, 94, 95. 99,
103, 104, 106, 107, 108, 120,
122, 124, 125, 133, 134, 141,
257, 260, 262, 264, 265, 266,
267, 269, 273, 274, 276, 277,
27S, 309, 312; ii. 12, 35,62;
with Mr. Thackeray, ii. 28 ;
with Sir Ch. \\ heatstone, i.
148 ; with Major Woodhead,
i. 66 ; with Mrs. Woodhead,
i. 2S8; ii. 27, 83.
Country and town, comparison
between the, i. 54, 65, 67, 82,
98, n9; ii. 85.
Cousins, marriage between, i. 53.
Crime, sameness in, i. 166, 167 ;
ii. 103, 104.
Critics and criticism, i. 1 59, ct
sfi/., 213; ii. 20.
Crystal Palace, visit to the, i.
77.78. •
D.\MASCUS, first view of,
ii. 245 ; death of Buckle
at, ii. 252.
Darwin's Origin of Species, ii. 28.
Dead Sea, ii. 227.
Death of Puickle, ii. 252.
Deduction and induction, i. 136,
152.
Descartes not persecuted, i. 139,
140.
Diary, the first entry in Buckle's,
i. 19 ; a part lost, i. 53, noU.
Draughts, Buckle's skill in, i.
14 ; ii. 118.
Dress, carelessness as to, ii. 57,
n7, 190; attention should be
paid to, by women, ii. 57, 79,
n7 ; importance of warm, in
the desert, ii. 188, 189.
Dublin, chess at, i. 67, 68.
EDFOO, ii. 150.
Education, Buckle's, i. 4,
et seq., 17, 18; views on, i. 51,
52,85,86,91,92, 100; ii. 39,
40, 54, 56, 72-75. 95. "8,
123, 129, et scq., 159, 199,
218.
Egypt, idea of visiting, ii. loS,
et seq. ; departure for, ii. 1 13 ;
landing in, ii. 1 19 ; the ancient
civilization of, ii. 143, I44,
i6
Index.
170, 172 ; departure from, ii.
187.
Emotions, the trutli of the, i.
293-
English civilization, why placed
first, i. 196, 197; richness of
the, language, ii. 61.
Epochs in literature, ii. 63, 64.
Esdraelon, the plain of, ii. 230.
Esneh, ii. 142.
Evolution, i. 103 ; ii. 28.
Extravagance, charge of, ii. 125,
160, 162.
FILEY, stay at, ii. 82.
Fire-arms, little skill iu
the use of, ii. 133, 166.
Food and civilization, i. 142,
162, 174, 242.
Form and colour, i. 33 ; ii. 141.
Free trade, i. 8.
Free will, i. 164, et seq.
French history, i. 152, 201 ;
poverty of the, language, ii.
61 ; under Napoleon III., ii.
78 ; taste, ii. 79 ; translation
of the History of Civilization, \
ii. 86.
Fiileh, el, ii. 230.
GAMES, Buckle's skill in, i.
14; ii. 125, 129.
Gebel Miisa, ii. 196, 197.
Gerizim, Mount, ii. 230.
Germany, history of, i. 202,
203 ; ii. 78 ; the Histoiy of
Civilization in, ii. 86.
Gethsemane, the garden of, ii.
220.
Ghost, a, at Munich, i. 34.
Gibraltar, ii. 119.
Greek fire, miracle of the, ii.
222, 223.
Grey, correspondence with Mr.,
i. 260; with Mrs., i. 80, 82,
84, 98, 104, 105, 109, no,
119. 125, 134, 139, 261, 280,
285, 294 ; ii. r, 10, 18, 33, 84.
Grote, correspondence with Mrs.,
ii. 67, 70, no.
HALLAM, acquaintance
with, i. 13, 21.
Hassan, prosecution of, ii. 241,
242.
Hatherley, correspondence wiih
Lord, i. 143, 145.
Health of Buckle, as a boy, i.
3, 6, 7, 8, 10 ; as a youth, i.
34, 35 ; as a man, i. 102, 104,
108, no, 125, 126, 127, 134,
259, 265, 275, 276, 288, 309 ;
ii. 10, II, 12, 18, 21, 26, 27,
34, 35. 36, 50, 51, 67—69,
71, 80, 83, 93, 99, III, 124,
127, 219 ; the last illness, ii.
231, 242, 244, 246,^/^^17.
Health, the compatibility of
with delicacy of feeling, i. 99 ;
ii. 62.
Hebrew quotations, ii. 175.
Hebron, ii. 211.
Heme Bay. stay at, i. 261. .
History of Civilization, the, early
plans concerning, i. 12, 19,
21, 63, 64 ; progress of vol. one,
i. loi, 103, 104. Ill ; publi-
cation of vol. one, i. 106, 112,
114, 116, 118, 120, 128 — 133,
140 ; dedication of, i. 128;
reception of vol. one, i. 141,
Index.
•>n
154, 250, cl scj., 264, 265,
283 ; ii. 86, 87 ; criticism on
vol. one, i. 120—122, 139, 140,
et seq., 159, dt scq., 271 ; ii.
21, 22; progress of vol. two, i.
153. 155; »• IS. 19. 2«. 28,
30, 31. 34. 37 ; publication of
vol. two, ii. 36, 62, 66 ; recep-
tion of vol. two, ii. 84, 86, 89,
et seq. ; analysis ami plan of,
i. 159 — 210 ; prospect of its
completion, i. 126, 211, 212;
curtailment of, i. 214; origi-
nality of, i. 218-248; the
place of, in history, i. 249.
Holyoake, interview with Mr.,
ii. 36.
Ilor.ascent of Mount, ii. 207,208.
Hull, .stay at, ii. 81.
Hutchinson, correspondence with
Mrs., ii. 29.
Huth, correspondence with Mr,,
ii. 30, 31. 157. 164, 197 ; with
Mrs., ii. 49, 59, 88, no, 113,
121, 125, 131, 147. 156, 197.
212, 239; with the sons of
Mr., ii. 32.
Huth, correspondence of the
sons of Mr., concerning
Buckle, ii. 31, 134.136. 185,
186.
IMAGINATION, want of, in
criminals, ii. 104.
Immortality, the proof of, i.
290 - 293 ; ii. 45, 46-
Income of Buckle, i. 147.
Individual and mass, difference
of laws for the, i. 144, 152, 243.
Induction and deduction, i. 136,
152.
Inheritance of genius, i. 179,
253-
Ireland, tour in, i. 67.
Italy, stay in, i. 13, 32, 33.
JENtN, ii. 230.
Jerusalem, stay at, ii. 212,
et seq.
Jordan, ii. 227.
KANT, and the History of
Civilization, i. 243-245.
Kent, anecdote of the Duchess
of, ii. 54 ; death, ib.
Kingsley, correspondence with
Mr. Ch., i. 305.
Kintore, plan of the History
written for Lord, i. 63, 64.
Knowledge immortal, i. 67.
IEGISLATOR.S not re-
^ formers, i. 193, 194, 236.
Leonard's, stay at St., ii. 48 — 58.
Leontes, the river, ii. 237.
Library, description of Buckle's,
i. 36, 156.
Linguistical knowledge, i. 12,
13. 33. 34; ''• >75-
Literature, and progress, i. 192 ;
.should punish as well as per-
suade, i. 304 ; epochs in, ii.
63, 64.
Literature, Royal .Society of, i.
69.
Longmore, Mr., conversations
with, ii. 142, 146, 1S7.
Love, a proof of immortality, i.
290—293.
Loves, early, i. 52, 53 ; ii. loS.
Lyell's Geology, i. 98, 102, 103.
iS
Index.
M
AC AULA Y, Lord, death
j. T JL of, ii. 28, 91 ; memory
of, ii. 184.
Macdonald, reception by Major,
ii- I93> 194-
Macliiavelli and the History of
Civilization, i. 236.
Malta, ii. 119.
Man not the centre of the
universe, i. 244.
Margate, stay at, ii. \^,etseq., 67.
Mar Saba, ii. 226, 227.
Mass and individual, difference
of laws for the, i. 144, 152,
243-
Mazetta, trial of the, ii. 1S3.
Memory, powerful, of Buckle, i.
70—75, 249; ii. 175, 225;
use of in teaching, i. loi.
Merj, el, ii. 243.
Mill, John Stuart, Logic, i. 102,
ii. 64 ; Political Economy, \.
97, 102 ;ii. 158, 159; Essays,
ii. 25 ; Utilitarianism, ii. lOl ;
On Liberty, i. 283 — 285, 289,
310; compared with Buckle,
ii. 122 ; on Buckle, ii. 228.
Miracles, conversation on, ii. 224.
Mitchell, correspondence with
Mrs., ii. 29, 62, 63, 65, 69, 81.
Montesquieu and the History of
Civilization, i. 239 — 243.
Moral knowledge not a factor
in the progress of civilization,
i- 143—148, I79> etseq., 248,
313; ii. 22, 23—25, 95, 96,
228, 229.
Mourning, refusal to go into, for
the Duchess of Kent, ii. 54 ;
a sham without sorrow, ii. 75.
Munich, stay at, i. 33, 34.
Music, no knowledge of, i. 15,
16, 17 ; acutencss of Buckle's
ear to tone, ii. 52, 72.
^T ABULUS, ii. 230.
< Nahr el Kasimiyeh, ii.
237.
Natural science, study of, l:)y
Buckle, i. 53, 65.
Nazareth, ii. 231, 235.
Normandy, tour in, i. 54, 55.
Novels, the value of, i. 106, 107.
Nubia, journey in, ii. 147, 148.
Nukb Badereh, ii. 193.
ORIGINALITY defined, i.
218—222 ; want of in
crime, i. 166, 167 ; ii. 103, 104;
in social life, ii. 190, 191.
PAINTINGS, views on, i.
4. 33-
Parker, correspondence with
Mr., i. 112, 114, 116, 118,
129, 131, 132, 150, 254, 256,
270, 272, 283, 284, 304, 306,
318,321 ;ii. 2,4,5,7, 19, 20.
Parker, correspondence with
Mr. Theodore, i. 154"; ii. 13.
Parsimony and avarice, the
difference between, i. 45, 46 ;
ii. 127.
Pelra, slay at, ii. 208, et seq.,
213, 214.
Petrified forest, visit to the, ii,
182, et seq.
Phrenology, i. 65.
Pleasure, the importance of, ii. 47,
Political economy, views on, i.
7, 8, 91, 97, 102 ; ii. 57.
Index.
319
Political Economy Club, elec-
tion to the, i. 252.
Political views, i. 7, 8, 17.
Pooley's Case, i. 285, 295—322;
ii. 1—9, 19.
Practicality, i. 47, ct seq., 108,
271,272, 273, 278, 279; little,
of genius, i. 47.
Profession, ideas of taking a, i.
8, 10—13, 35.
Pyramids, the, ii. 155.
RAS el 'Ain, ii. 236, 237.
Reading, Buckle's course
of, as a child, i. 4 ; great power
of, i. 18, 19, 37 ; method in,
37> 38 ; while travelling,
55 ; not in public libraries,
156.
Religion of Buckle, i. 7, 17,
231 ; efTect of, on progress,
i. 186, 192, 232.
Residence of Buckle, i. 3, 19, Tfi.
Royal Institution, lecture at the,
i. 253—256.
Royal Society of Literature, i.
69.
Ruge, Dr., ii. 33.
Russia, the History of Civiliza-
tion in, i. 141 ; ii. 86, 87.
SAMARITANS, the, ii. 230.
Scepticism, in what sense
used by Buckle, i. 162.
Schooling of Buckle, i. 4, 5.
Schools, girls', ii. 55, 56.
Scotch history, i. 155, 202, 2S2.
Sculpture, views on, i. t^t^.
Shirreff, Miss, acquaintance with,
i. 80 ; correspondence with, i.
81, 84, 86, 87. 88, 89. 93, 94,
95. 99, »o3. >04, 106, 107,
108, 120, 122, 124, 125, 133,
134, 141, 257, 260, 262, 264,
265, 266, 267, 269, 273, 274,
276, 277, 278, 309, 312; ii.
I-', 35, 62.
Sidon, ii. 238.
Sinai, convent of, ii. 196 ; ascent
of, ii. 196, 197.
'Skye,' ii. 89, 94.
Smoking, love of, i. 44, 45.
Sociability, i. 68, 69.
Spanish history, i. 155, 201, 202 ;
Translation of the History of
Civilization, ii. 82, 86, 1 72.
Species, the origin of, i. 103 ; ii.
28.
S'ptncQrs First Principles, ii. 48.
Spirit rapping, ii. 102, 103, 144,
147, 149.
Stanley, opinion of Dean, ii. lOl,
249.
Style, study given to, i. 40, 41 ;
beauty of Buckle's, i. 41, 42 ;
advice on, i. 87.
Suez, ii. 187.
Suez canal, the, ii. 204.
Suicide, the sinfulness of, ii. 46.
Sutton, stay at, ii. 89—109.
TEA, how to make, i. 48.
Thackeray, correspon-
dence with Mr., ii. 28.
Thebes, ii. 138, 155.
Three states, Comte's law of the,
i. 226, 247.
Tiberias, ii. 234. 235.
Town and country, comparison
between, i. 54, 66, 67, 82, 98,
119; ii. 85.
320
Index.
Transcendentalism, i. 135, f/j^^.,
177, 232.
Translations, place of, in litera-
ture, i. 122.
Travel, the importance of, ii. 109.
Tunbridije Wells, stay at, i. 66,
119, d seq., 270 ; ii. 29.
Turquoise mines, ii. 193.
Tyre, ii. 237.
UTILITARIANISM,!!. 23,
100, [28.
VANIl'Y worse than greedi-
ness, ii. 57.
Vico and the History of Civiliza-
tion, i. 234—239.
Vinci, Leonardo da, ii. 44.
Voltaire and freedom, i. 300.
WADY FEIRAN, ii. 195.
Wady Ghurundel, ii.
192.
Wady Magharah, ii. 193.
Wady Mukatteb, ii. 195.
Wady Taiyibeh, ii. 195.
War, views on, i. 77, 78.
Wheatstone,correspondcnce with
Sir Ch., i. 148.
Whitby, stay at, ii. 83.
Women, and education, i. 83,
85, loi, 253, 269 ; ii. 40, 55,
56, 72, et seq. ; lecture on the
influence of, i. 253 ; the rights
of, i. 285—287.
W^oodhead, correspondence with
Major, i. 66 ; concerning
Major, i. 135 ; with Mrs., i.
2S8 ; ii. 27, 83.
Work, power of, i. 249.
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